Unreasonable to beep at elderly drivers?

[Pixienott0005]

Is it unreasonable to beep your horn at elderly drivers? I over heard a conversation in the shop where an old man pulled out on a mini round about, the driver beeped but the old man pulled over as it scared the shit out of him being beeped at. Frightened of the driver by the sounds of it.

What else are you actually supposed to do? I beep at anyone if they don't see me but never thought about how old people might think and what it could do to them.

MyBread, if this lady really has so little vision , a family member has to take away her car keys. Not doing so makes you all complicit in any accident she causes. I hope my family will do this for me if I get to that stage - but I don't think I would be so lacking in awareness.

I know someone who is currently in hospital because an old person pulled out on him. He has broken every limb and nearly lost one of them. No need for aggressive beeping but it's scary with some people on the road!

eggy I've just read your post. My friend has three kids and was in a medically induced coma last week as a 78 year old woman pulled out in front of him while he was on a bike. One of his wrists is crushed, he nearly lost and arm and both legs are broken. The attending officer was surprised that he's still alive and even more surprised he hasn't lost a limb. Three kids nearly lost a father last week because no family member acted about this woman's driving

eggy you need to take her keys, tell the DVLA and also possibly arrange with her to speak to her GP and get their opinion. Or possibly optician if eyesight is the main issue.
Please don't leave it any longer. She sounds like a real danger to others.

Eggy, here's the DVLA form for reporting concerns.

And advice from Which about how to soften the blow, and support you might want to look into for her: Talking to your relative about their driving

Please do act. It won't be fun, but it's better than the alternative.

I was trying to get out of a car park today while two very old drivers tried to
manouvre round each other for a very long time. There was so much space that they could easily have got past each other but no, back and forth they went, much reversing and edging backwards and forwards while I sat there with my handbrake on picking my nails and wondering if I would get out of there before school pick up. It was actually painful to watch. I did not beep my horn. But I was seriously tempted to ask if they wanted me to move their bloody cars for them!

The main road out of our village is a 50mph speed limit and I regularly get stuck behind old drivers (by old I mean 80 plus) doing 20mph with no care for the huge line of vehicles behind them. This village has a high population of old people and I've been in three collisions in two years where old drivers have not seen me and driven into my car. On one memorable occasion a woman in an automatic hit my car, tried to reverse and slammed it back into drive and hit me again. She had her tiny granddaughter in the back of her car. Thank god we were only in a car park and not at speed.

I didn't even know I could report straight to the DVLA!!
I will show DH the form when he gets home and we will get it done and sent. Also, will be having another talk with her at the weekend, along with FIL and DH's uncle so we can all voice our concerns (again). If she still tries to brush it off as nothing, I will take her keys without her knowing.

To the poster upthread who said you should think before you beep - if you have time to think about it, you shouldn't beep. It's either too late, or you never needed to beep in the first place.

You use the horn on the occasions specified in the Highway Code, not according to the characteristics of the other driver.

have the posters on here who are suggesting that you just talk to an old person or take their keys ever actually tried to do this? DF is mid 80's. he is competent to drive locally short distances but insists on doing 4+ hour drives. we have had the talk, many, many times. he refuses to stop as he says he likes it, he is good at it and others rely on him. he says if he gives up he will completely lose his independence and his social circle. if we took the keys away he would get others cut or use the spares. if we took the car it would be theft. its one of those things that sounds so brilliantly easy to do in theory but is an absolute nightmare in practice.

I really don't think the responsibility should rest with a family member. there should be a proper re-testing regime in place either from a certain age or if diagnosed with certain conditions. if kids have to pass a test to be able to drive because they aren't considered responsible enough then older people should also have to pass a test if they want to continue. driving is a privilege not a right. leaving it up to a doctor who has no idea most of the time who they are and also feels guilty if they say no is not reasonable.

if someones driving is poor then the horn is appropriate irrespective of their age "to warn other road users of your presence"

If I've read the OP correctly an elderly man pulled out onto a roundabout when it was not safe to do so, either not seeing the traffic already on the roundabout or misjudging the amount of time he had. Therefore it was perfectly acceptable for the other motorist to use the horn to alert the elderly driver of his presence.

Apart from successive governments' fear of in any way upsetting the over 65s, I can see no reason why those above a certain age shouldn't be re-tested and subject to a medical if they wish to continue driving.

I guess people would say 'whatabout young drivers who cause a disproportionate amount of accidents?' But the causes and solutions are different. If a younger driver crashes because they are driving too fast or make risky decisions you can punish or educate them for their bad driving and hopefully with time and experience they'll become better, safer drivers. If an older driver is struggling due to mental or physical decline, what can you do? You can't make senile dementia or slowing reaction speeds better by sending them on a speed awareness course. The only solution is to take licences away and be rather more rigorous about re-testing.

"If I've read the OP correctly an elderly man pulled out onto a roundabout when it was not safe to do so, either not seeing the traffic already on the roundabout or misjudging the amount of time he had. Therefore it was perfectly acceptable for the other motorist to use the horn to alert the elderly driver of his presence."

His age isn't the salient point. His bad driving is.

"I guess people would say 'whatabout young drivers who cause a disproportionate amount of accidents?' But the causes and solutions are different."

Not the point. A bad driver is a bad driver irrespective of age. But yes, younger people as a population are greater risk takers, which leads to involvement in bad driving. If you were serious about making age-related evidence-based changes to driving laws, it would be to raise the age for getting a driving licence by several years.

"The only solution is to take licences away and be rather more rigorous about re-testing".

I would support this following any offence that caused points on a licence (not birthdays). It's about competency, not age.

eggy. Thank you. I was about to add my voice to the concern, no it's not extem to lock a car in a garage or hide the keys of persons car if you think they are too dangerous to drive. Waiting until they kill someone is.

I don't think anyone should have to redo the actual driving test, but I do think a medical test should be done every few years after they reach 70ish to check eye sight and reactions.

We had a difficult time with my nanna. She was really unsafe in her last few years, drifting into other lanes, and stopping in inappropriate places such as in the middle of an extremely busy roundabout to wind down her window. The family tried to say something gently, but she got ill which made the decision. Luckily my Grandad gave up his own car when he felt his reaction times aren't as they were. But not everyone will admit that.

While there are bad drivers of every age, whenever I see someone going extremely slow or drifting across lanes there is usually an older person behind the wheel.

It is difficult to tell someone to stop driving as it does have a negative impact, but sadly it has to be done sometimes.

I'm pretty sure that younger drivers are more of a danger than older drivers.

That said, I think families need to be very vigilant about their elderly relatives driving and be brave about dealing with it. we were. It was hard.

that said, my elderly parents never caused any harm to anyone. In fact my mother drove for 64 years all told without ever having any accidents at all. My father once glanced off a parked car, aged 80 when he had undiagnosed pneumonia. he never drove again.

I find the biggest issue with elderly drivers is driving slowly and perhaps a bit erratically. I would never ever beep at them about that. And in general they aren't texting which every other person driving is doing around here - leading to far more dozy and erratic driving.

Every single demographic there is goes through the roundabouts here without any goddammed care for the yield sign. I don't beep them either even though I want to fucking kill them because I worry they might be my dentist/children's teachers/women I meet on the PTA/ etc. small enough community so I don't want to risk it. But god do I want to slay all of them going through that yield sign.

I would say if they had pulled out in front of you then they had not seen you.

I noticed a car with one of those yellow signs in the back window that said "caution, elderly driver. Please be patient" I was quite taken aback by it! Understandably, it's perfectly acceptable for learner drivers to request patience but I don't believe so for the elderly. It did make me question their driving to be fair. If the driver felt the need for one of those signs what had happened to make them think that it's other drivers who need to be patient?

It's probably a confidence issue and I, wrongly or rightly came to the conclusion that they weren't a confident driver.

But it's not just the elderly who have issues with confidence on the road and then there are those who are too confident....

As I said upthread, I used to formally check vision, when peoples vision didn't meet the required driving standard all I could do was inform them, inform them that their insurance would no longer be valid due to their standard of vision and that the conversation would be documented in their medical notes. Most of the time they paid no notice whatsoever and continued driving. The onus is completely on the individual to stop driving/self-report. Opticians/optometrists/0phthalmologists etc don't report to the dvla. Its the drivers responsibility, unless, the assessor suspects (strongly-and with evidence) that there is cognitive impairment which would affect the persons comprehension of the conversation. (Basically dementia)