https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/dick-van-dyke-97-shows-off-car-crash-injuries-in-new-photos-sore-all-over/ar-AA194Tyb
Do you think it is OK to drive a car at his age? Prince Philip was 97 when he was in a crash that injured 2 women.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jan/17/prince-philip-involved-in-car-accident-near-sandringham
I like Dick Van Dyke as an actor. I liked Prince Philip too.
Do you think it is OK to have a driver's license at that age?
To answer your question: only if the individual agrees to regular driving tests to ensure they're still safe to drive on the road.
I despise ageism, and in theory, I wouldn't want to set a max age limit in terms of when a person has to stop driving, but you raise a fair point, and in one's late nineties, the possibility of an accident on the road sadly seems likely.
Yes, that seems fair. I just think it is worthy of consideration.
share
Agree. Some people are just terrible drivers even at a young age. My mom was a terrible driver with lousy intuition. Amazingly she avoided accidents pretty well, but I hated riding with her.
I think that anyone over 75 should be required to take an on-road test (and that's only 9 years away for me).
I think a regular competency assessment would be a good idea. Not necessarily the whole procedure that you go though to get your licence first time around (which many people of any age would probably fail!), but definitely something to satisfy an examiner that you're safe to get behind a wheel.
shareI don't think half the people driving should be driving.
shareWhy? What is your criteria?
Should it be exactly "half"?
How about a lottery? Everybody gets a random number from 1-100. If your number is 1-49 you driving privileges are terminated permanently. No recourse.
If your number is 50 then have another lottery and half of those persons will have their licenses seized and their vehicles impounded.
Seems reasonable.
NO.
Because at that age, the sight fails, the reaction times fail, the limbs to drive the car are less flexible.
NO, he should f-cking NOT be driving. He's proven himself to be a prick if he can get into accidents, and so was Philip (I'm not calling him Prince!)
Dyke should do the decent thing and give up driving, and DAMN his independence. Why should he drive himself anyway? He's rich, isn't he? He should HIRE himself a younger driver to be his chauffeur!
Most people in driving accidents are much younger. Maybe no one should be driving.
He's still dancing and moves pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMjI2cRRzH0
Right, Keelai.
We should make these types of assessments based on an individual's competency, rather than broad generalisations. That said, I do think that once you're in your 90s you should probably be required to sit a regular assessment (albeit, not necessarily a whole test), as Doctor Thirteen, above, sensibly suggests.
Ageism?
A medical doctor can best determine if their patient at any age can drive.
I said I was against ageism. But clearly at a certain age, one's faculties are reduced, so it makes sense for people in their nineties to have regular driving assessments. If a motorist in their nineties isn't regularly seeing their doctor, it might be necessary for mandatory assessments. And reduced sight/alertness isn't necessarily something one goes to see one's doctor for, because one's health might otherwise be in good condition.
Anyway, I was agreeing with you, so I'm not sure why you've taken exception to my post. Are you one of those people who picks fights with everyone? 🤷♂️
I don't agree with "mandatory assessments" for "people in their nineties".
"Are you one of those people who picks fights with everyone?"
Nah! I actually agree with Kowalski's answer about the DMV.
Anyway, my original point is that people jumped to the conclusion that his age was the reason for the accident. It was raining hard, his car skidded and he lost control. That could happen to anyone. He tested negative for alcohol and drugs. He'll be retested by the DMV at request of the police at the scene which is fine.
Btw, California already has specific provisions for drivers 70+.
THE DMV ALREADY DOES THAT...AS WELL STIPULATING LIMITED DRIVING PRIVLEDGES IN SOME CASES.
shareAt his age, probably not. But, provided the individual does not die of some other cause before the time comes, there does seem to come a point where spatial awareness, reflexes, coordination, etc. are have simply decreased too much due to age, but an individual, especially if they have been capable and independent their whole lives, is reluctant to face this fact. My grandfather, when he got up into his eighties, and had a series of mini-strokes, became thus impaired, and caused a minor fender bender. My grandmother and her younger sister at one point had to go out and stand behind his car, refusing to move, as he tried to back the car out onto the street. She saw his diminished capacity, even if he didn't want to admit it to himself. It wasn't long after that that the mini-strokes put grandad in a wheelchair too, and he spent the last several years of his life as an invalid, which I know was pure hell for the man.
By contrast, my grandmother herself knocked the side view mirror off a parked car on our street several years later, and she never drove again, only keeping the car after that to have other people (like me sometimes) give her rides to places she needed to go. She wasn't too proud to admit it to herself when she was no longer safe behind the wheel.
I think that after the age of say, seventy-five, eighty at the latest, drivers should probably have to undergo a yearly driver safety evaluation. Dick Van Dyke seems in fantastic shape for his age, but at ninety-five, his ability to drive safely and cope with the unpredictability of other drivers is probably substantially diminished.
There was a 102 year old woman in my town who was still driving. She finally gave it up when her grandchildren offered to drive her instead. She loved that.
shareare you asking because he had a wreck?
shareNo, because of his age.
share My late mother should not have been driving! She was always a good driver, never a speeding ticket. But when she hit 80 (the age, not the speed), she was getting so unsafe. She ruined her car by driving right into a big construction hole in a residential neighborhood.
We wanted her to stop driving. But she'd still run out to a neighborhood store. One day I found an orange traffic cone stuck under her car. She dragged it home without even realizing it. She finally gave up driving.
I suspect it’s more due to smug ageism.
Stay physically and cognitively active. You will rust out before you will wear out.
Fernando Alonso, 2-time World Champion, is, at 45, easily the senior driver in the Formula 1 field, yet he is still finishing 2nd and 3rd among men less than half his age. And that’s FORMULA ONE, motherfucker, not taking a run to the 7/11.