Originally Posted by
hfbill
I hope you have a full recovery and can get back to biking again. Your story sent chills down my spine as I ride every winter in South Florida. The tolerance our society has for age impaired drivers is a major problem, not just in California or Florida but throughout the US. A few years back, my father developed dementia and I can't tell you how difficult it was to get him off the road even though he had 7 accidents in 3 years. Even with that, NYS DMV was happy to renew his license (at age 81). We finally were able to convince his doctor to file a report with DMV to get his license pulled. I do hope there's an 84 year old woman in Alpine CA that will never drive again!
Yes, elderly motorists are more deadly than teenagers and don't have the hormone or inexperience excuses. After a long battle, we finally got my mother-in-law off the road by taking her car away and convincing her that if she drove again we would have her physician contact the DMV to get her license officially revoked. She passed away a few months later still convinced that she could drive just fine in spite of abundant evidence to the contrary. My own mother is finally giving up driving next month at age 82, about a decade too late.
IMO, we need to take age-based impairment much more seriously. I've had way too many "interesting" encounters on the road with people who simply cannot see or process information adequately to be behind the wheel.