That is awful to decide to drive when you cant see and just think itll be fine…
>”He now accepts that he should have realised [how bad his vision was], but he didn’t. He just hopes the court accepts that it wasn’t a deliberate decision.”
The man was told he could be on the verge of cataracts and did nothing to follow up and still choose to drive, sounds deliberate to me.
Once you get to a certain age (I’d say 60 when reactions are noticeably slower), you should have to take your driving test again along with eye test, hearing etc.
Edit. Thank you for the award kind stranger.
Absolutely horrible event, of course. The driver definitely deserves to be in jail. However, we should also do better, as a society, to ensure this kind of thing happens less. Mandatory eye tests for drivers where frequency is tied to age just seems like a no-brainer.
I’ll also just caution people not to react *too* harshly to the “didn’t notice his eyesight deteriorating” bit. I became short-sighted in early teenage years — as many do — but it wasn’t obvious until I really needed glasses. It obviously happens gradually, so an element of ‘not realising’ is understandable (if not an excuse).
Perhaps we need a closer relationship between opticians and the DVLA to flag this kind of thing up.
A lot of older people find it difficult to accept that they just aren’t capable of doing some things anymore, driving being a big one. They don’t want to lose that independence.
Selfish idiot. Time for retakes after a certain age.
A similar thing happened in Austria. Some fossil drove too fast and killed two children who where pulled in a bike trailer. The devastated mother was found partially guilty, because the trailer was missing a signal flag (yes, Austria is a joke country).
In UK people get at least some kind of sentence, although 6 months is still a joke for manslaughter.
Anyways: People above age 60 should have annual tests made. No exceptions.
the best way to kill someone is behind the wheel of a car
This was tragic and totally avoidable.. My Nan in the war (1942 – 5) drove MP’s around the country.. Her driving was impeccable.. Once she hit state pension age and got a free bus pass, sold her car never drove again. Though more than capable, even she admitted her reflexes / vision would lessen over the years and wouldn’t risk it.. I salute her totally. Majority of older people don’t seem to realise / know, how slow their reflexes have got, and or their vision has deteriorated. There really does need a mandatory test at a certain age, covering vision, general health, reflexes etc and an actual test similar to the actual driving test. My Dad at 80 thought he was more than capable, I took the keys and sold his car.. worst tailgater I have known..
MOT’s for road worthiness should apply to drivers as well as vehicles.
Kids take your grandparents keys. I remember when my grandad and the fam called it quits on his driving after realising he was driving dangerously slow all the time.
I cannot believe that we as a society tolerate cars in the way that we do. They kill so many people annually, trash the environment, cause pollution related-deaths and generally make towns and cities a hell-scape.
We should as a society be looking at giving people viable alternatives to every single one of us having to own and operate a 2-tonne death machine to just live our lives.
Good. British people are far too accepting of stubborn pride as an excuse for things in general.
If only he had a number plate on his car and had to get insurance for it. That would have stopped him.
It is fucking bonkers that road users (everyone including pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikers, drivers) are expected to trust their lives with people who are so fucking selfish.
The man damn well knew his eyesight was too bad for driving, he experiences it everyday. Yet this fucker decided his getting behind a wheel was more important than other peoples’ lives.
Once people are at the pensionable age they should be forced to renew their license every year.
The carer, person who deals with keeping the car legal, and insurance company should start to be penalised for insuring older drivers who are unsafe. This guy clearly shouldn’t be behind the wheel, just like the recent case of the woman who got off because she was mentally unfit got trial.
Someone allowed the guy to keep on driving and at that point they became an accessory to manslaughter.
The fact that people pass their test (usually pre 20) and then basically never have to do anything again is kind of mad.
6 MONTHS SENTENCE??? As per usual, if you want to kill someone and get away with it, do it in a car.
My dad keeps telling us he’s sharp as a tack, his driving is excellent, and that he’s a good a driver as he was when he was younger. Even though he can’t drive at night, has had two crashes in the last 5 years, 4 prangs, and keeps making daily mistakes due to his declining cognition.
It a male ego thing. I’ve watched my fathers cognitive ability fall precipitously since he turned 75. And he’s mostly aware of it. But his ego has inflated massively to compensate. I wonder if it’s a common occurrence for boomer males?
The Tory Government would never dare bring in any legislation for dangerous elderly drivers, they don’t want to piss off the majority of their voter base.
> He did not believe, living alone and isolated, that his eyesight was as bad as he now completely accepts it is.
Bull….shit. He just didn’t care.
Also this is the oldest-looking 82 year old I’ve ever seen.
I can’t drive currently because of medical issues – if you’ve had a fit you can’t drive for two years after – so no dog in this hunt. I would query all these people saying manditary tests over 60 though.
There’s a huge difference between 65 – where you’re working normally, might perhaps be running a nuclear power plant or driving a tube train, and 75 – where a large proportion might be significantly impared.
I appreciate that from the perspective of a 20 year old everyone over 50 is unbelievably decrepid and close to death, but 60 really isn’t that old. Tests for the over 70’s sounds sensible. But of course since the over 70’s vote and under 25’s don’t, there’s zero chance of it happening.
This isn’t involuntary, this was a straight out murder and should be treated as such. Sad we as society can’t protect innocents from elderly. They had it all in their early years, including cheap housing and now they are driving cars, when they clearly shouldn’t and are killing innocent people. Man, fuck this country
Cunt should rot in jail. I don’t care how old is he.
This old bastard knew full well he’s unfit to drive yet he was arrogant enough to drive. 6 months is a fucking joke for deliberate negligence causing death.
Fuck him, he knew what he was doing. Eye test recalls are every year after 60.
He would have been told his vision was dropping due to cataracts and that no corrections to spectacles could fix it and chose to ignore it and the affect on others he could have on the road. These fuckers tend to start avoiding eye exams when this is explained.
As someone who has dealt with this situation first hand he can rot inside.
26 comments
That is awful to decide to drive when you cant see and just think itll be fine…
>”He now accepts that he should have realised [how bad his vision was], but he didn’t. He just hopes the court accepts that it wasn’t a deliberate decision.”
The man was told he could be on the verge of cataracts and did nothing to follow up and still choose to drive, sounds deliberate to me.
Once you get to a certain age (I’d say 60 when reactions are noticeably slower), you should have to take your driving test again along with eye test, hearing etc.
Edit. Thank you for the award kind stranger.
Absolutely horrible event, of course. The driver definitely deserves to be in jail. However, we should also do better, as a society, to ensure this kind of thing happens less. Mandatory eye tests for drivers where frequency is tied to age just seems like a no-brainer.
I’ll also just caution people not to react *too* harshly to the “didn’t notice his eyesight deteriorating” bit. I became short-sighted in early teenage years — as many do — but it wasn’t obvious until I really needed glasses. It obviously happens gradually, so an element of ‘not realising’ is understandable (if not an excuse).
Perhaps we need a closer relationship between opticians and the DVLA to flag this kind of thing up.
A lot of older people find it difficult to accept that they just aren’t capable of doing some things anymore, driving being a big one. They don’t want to lose that independence.
Selfish idiot. Time for retakes after a certain age.
A similar thing happened in Austria. Some fossil drove too fast and killed two children who where pulled in a bike trailer. The devastated mother was found partially guilty, because the trailer was missing a signal flag (yes, Austria is a joke country).
In UK people get at least some kind of sentence, although 6 months is still a joke for manslaughter.
Anyways: People above age 60 should have annual tests made. No exceptions.
the best way to kill someone is behind the wheel of a car
This was tragic and totally avoidable.. My Nan in the war (1942 – 5) drove MP’s around the country.. Her driving was impeccable.. Once she hit state pension age and got a free bus pass, sold her car never drove again. Though more than capable, even she admitted her reflexes / vision would lessen over the years and wouldn’t risk it.. I salute her totally. Majority of older people don’t seem to realise / know, how slow their reflexes have got, and or their vision has deteriorated. There really does need a mandatory test at a certain age, covering vision, general health, reflexes etc and an actual test similar to the actual driving test. My Dad at 80 thought he was more than capable, I took the keys and sold his car.. worst tailgater I have known..
MOT’s for road worthiness should apply to drivers as well as vehicles.
Kids take your grandparents keys. I remember when my grandad and the fam called it quits on his driving after realising he was driving dangerously slow all the time.
I cannot believe that we as a society tolerate cars in the way that we do. They kill so many people annually, trash the environment, cause pollution related-deaths and generally make towns and cities a hell-scape.
We should as a society be looking at giving people viable alternatives to every single one of us having to own and operate a 2-tonne death machine to just live our lives.
Good. British people are far too accepting of stubborn pride as an excuse for things in general.
If only he had a number plate on his car and had to get insurance for it. That would have stopped him.
It is fucking bonkers that road users (everyone including pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikers, drivers) are expected to trust their lives with people who are so fucking selfish.
The man damn well knew his eyesight was too bad for driving, he experiences it everyday. Yet this fucker decided his getting behind a wheel was more important than other peoples’ lives.
Once people are at the pensionable age they should be forced to renew their license every year.
The carer, person who deals with keeping the car legal, and insurance company should start to be penalised for insuring older drivers who are unsafe. This guy clearly shouldn’t be behind the wheel, just like the recent case of the woman who got off because she was mentally unfit got trial.
Someone allowed the guy to keep on driving and at that point they became an accessory to manslaughter.
The fact that people pass their test (usually pre 20) and then basically never have to do anything again is kind of mad.
6 MONTHS SENTENCE??? As per usual, if you want to kill someone and get away with it, do it in a car.
My dad keeps telling us he’s sharp as a tack, his driving is excellent, and that he’s a good a driver as he was when he was younger. Even though he can’t drive at night, has had two crashes in the last 5 years, 4 prangs, and keeps making daily mistakes due to his declining cognition.
It a male ego thing. I’ve watched my fathers cognitive ability fall precipitously since he turned 75. And he’s mostly aware of it. But his ego has inflated massively to compensate. I wonder if it’s a common occurrence for boomer males?
The Tory Government would never dare bring in any legislation for dangerous elderly drivers, they don’t want to piss off the majority of their voter base.
> He did not believe, living alone and isolated, that his eyesight was as bad as he now completely accepts it is.
Bull….shit. He just didn’t care.
Also this is the oldest-looking 82 year old I’ve ever seen.
I can’t drive currently because of medical issues – if you’ve had a fit you can’t drive for two years after – so no dog in this hunt. I would query all these people saying manditary tests over 60 though.
There’s a huge difference between 65 – where you’re working normally, might perhaps be running a nuclear power plant or driving a tube train, and 75 – where a large proportion might be significantly impared.
I appreciate that from the perspective of a 20 year old everyone over 50 is unbelievably decrepid and close to death, but 60 really isn’t that old. Tests for the over 70’s sounds sensible. But of course since the over 70’s vote and under 25’s don’t, there’s zero chance of it happening.
This isn’t involuntary, this was a straight out murder and should be treated as such. Sad we as society can’t protect innocents from elderly. They had it all in their early years, including cheap housing and now they are driving cars, when they clearly shouldn’t and are killing innocent people. Man, fuck this country
Cunt should rot in jail. I don’t care how old is he.
This old bastard knew full well he’s unfit to drive yet he was arrogant enough to drive. 6 months is a fucking joke for deliberate negligence causing death.
Fuck him, he knew what he was doing. Eye test recalls are every year after 60.
He would have been told his vision was dropping due to cataracts and that no corrections to spectacles could fix it and chose to ignore it and the affect on others he could have on the road. These fuckers tend to start avoiding eye exams when this is explained.
As someone who has dealt with this situation first hand he can rot inside.