Late one morning I was
driving west in the westbound lane of a four lane divided street in the city
where I was working. While driving I was seeing the rear and tail lights of
cars in front of me. After driving about one block I noticed a grill coming toward
me indicating a car coming the wrong way.
I turned on my overhead
emergency lights and siren and drove passed the car going the wrong way. I made
a U turn and got behind the car. The car
was going around 40 MPH in the marked 45 MPH zone. I followed the car with my overhead emergency
lights and siren blaring. The car I was
following maintained a constant speed. I notified dispatch that I was following
a car that was failing to stop.
The car did stop at the first
intersection we came to where light was red. I maintained my position behind
the vehicle with my overhead lights and siren on. The car proceeded across the
cross street into a 30 MPH section of a two lane street. The car dropped its speed to about 25 MPH and
was going east in the correct lane. Then the vehicle turned left onto a residential
street and finally pulled over to the left curb by crossing over the lane of
oncoming traffic.
I walked up to the driver’s
door and observed an elderly female driver.
I asked her why she had not pulled over and stopped for me? She said she
had just noticed I was behind when she turned left. I told her I had been
behind her for several blocks because I saw her going the wrong way. She acted very flustered and confused. She
said she thought things looked wrong and cars seemed to be driving weird and
driving the wrong way.
She was flustered to the
point I did not think she should drive, plus I questioned if she should ever
drive. I had her give me the name and number of her grown son and asked
dispatch to call him and ask him to come to my location and pick up his mother.
The grown son arrived and legally parked the mother’s car and drove his mother away.
I had issued her a citation
for driving the wrong way and for failure to stop for an emergency vehicle. I
also completed a card that I sent to the state for her to be retested. I felt
she was a danger to her self and others and needed to be tested.
She went ahead and paid the
fines for the violations. I received a call several weeks later from her son
angry with me because when the state requested his mother be retested she
refused to do so and the state revoked her driver’s license. I think she knew she wouldn’t pass and saved
herself the embarrassment.
I sent cards into the state
several times during my career for drivers to be retested because I felt they
were dangerous to themselves and others.
I know losing their licenses was devastating, but there comes a time
when age affects too many skills to be safe and competent drivers.
I know myself and it won’t be
easy for me to give up my license, but I hope I will be competent enough to do
so when it is time. Some states require yearly testing after a certain age. Should every state require annual testing after
a certain age? What should that age be? I’ve heard on the news lately many
instances of elderly folks who drive into businesses because they hit the gas
pedal instead of the brake pedal. There
were three people injured and one of them died in a church parking lot in
Kansas City last weekend because an 83 year old man thought he was in drive,
but actually in reverse when he stepped on the gas pedal.
Until Tomorrow,
Sally S
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