ROAD AND WORKSHOP by HANDYMAN
Page 42
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When to Quit
FEW of us who have spent most of a lifetime connected with road vehicles and driving will look forward with any particular joy to the day when age. retirement, or plain common sense indicates that it is time to relinquish the steering wheel for good.
As one would expect, -within the transport industry, the accepted retiring age. whether compulsory or not, prevents a very old person from becoming a danger to himself and others on the road. and no serious situation can arise.
Outside of our industry, however, there is a rather odd situation in the private car world, and one that could do with some form of examination in the interests of road safety. As I mentioned earlier, we must all feel that to give up driving in some few years' time must be like putting one foot in the grave, yet all must be aware of reflexes that are slowing down. fuzzy eyesight at speed. and so on, and if one is to be completely honest, these indications should be the yardstick. However, there are many many car drivers on the roads today who are long past the normal retiring age and are still fresh and very capable, and one would tend to think "Good luck to them ". I hope that I can do the same. Yet from time to time, especially in our own world of wheels galore and millions of miles travelled, we come across situations that indicate a grave loophole somewhere in the control of licence and insurance.
At this moment, a private car driver can renew his licence year by year at any local office, and without question, he will be given an exact duplicate of his previous licence. even if he arrived at the licensing desk with two white sticks and a guide clog. Similarly, if his insurance record is clear he can renew by post. year in year out, and no one will ever write back and raise the question of age. Therefore. we have in fact, a real situation, and however distasteful it may appear. it is one that year by year is given the " Nelson blind eye ".
Question of Age
I will now move on from the writtendown situation, if it may so be called. to the rather grim side that has crossed the path of many who control or maintain large numbers of transport vehicles.
In 1958. a lady of 80 years misjudged her speed and distance from the rear of one of my vehicles. which had halted to turn right off Al. The lady died. not as a direct result of injuries, but from shock. The fact: that she was wearing hi-focal glasses may or may not have had a bearing on the incident. Although this is a known cause of misjudgment. it was felt at the time that the cause of the accident was slow reflexes, which could be expected at that age.
A more involved accident happened in 1960. An eight-ton rigid vehicle was running between Newcastle and Glasgow at 11.30 p.m. on empty roads, when from a minor road on the lorry driver's left, a large car crossed the main road without halting. as clearly indicated. The
lorry driver turned right with the car irito the opposite minor road, but in doing so. overturned the car. The car driver was shaken but unhurt bodily: he was taken to hospital for a check up but retained there as shock developed. and unfortunately he died from pneumonia and shock 10 days later. Only then did it become known that his age was 90 years and 3 months and he had driven cars from 1908 with never a single accident.
In 1963. an estate vehicle was travelling in one hop from the north of Scotland to Dover. In the vehicle were a grandmother. mother and two daughters; The mother had driven at the start of the journey, the elder daughter during the afternoon, while grandma took a spell in the early evening, with the mother intending to drive after dark.
Between Scotch Corner and Doncaster. the grandmother failed to note and avoid a stationary vehicle, killing herself and the young girl sitting behind her. It was still daylight and the stationary vehicle clearly visible. 'The grandmother was more than 78 years old and she had driven non-stop for 2i hours.
This rather peculiar loophole is still with its and may need investigation and action in the interests of road safety for the general public.
The accompanying cutting from a May. 1965 newspaper is not of the grim kind I have described, but it does show that there is no when-to-quit yardstick in being at this time.