Duke of Edinburgh’s Road Accident

[SirGawain]

AIBU to ask why on earth is the Duke of Edinburgh driving at the age of 97.

Re the lady whose daughter was hit by the uninsured 81 year old. I was once hit (drove into the back of me so I suppose no argument about fault) by an uninsured 20 something nurse who didn't have permission to drive the car she had taken.

There is an agreement across insurers that in such circumstances the person affected suffers no financial loss or loss of no claims. I did have legal cover on the policy abd i do know the insurers hired a private detective to confirm id's of owner and driver. Don't know if that was facilitated by the legal ins.

There are good and bad elderly drivers and good and bad young drivers.

I do know that having fairly recently moved to a rural area just about all the dangerous driving I see almost every day is by a youngster (usually male).

A lot of the roads have speed limits of 30 or 40 and the amount of cars that absolutely fly past when doing the limit is horrendous. It is also pretty normal to see cars overtaking on blind bends, solid white lines, when a car is coming towards them etc. The driver is almost always a young male although occasionally a young female. Not yet seen an older person driving so dangerously.

I keep saying to DH that either they haven't taken a test or the test must be really really easy here as so many are such bad drivers.

If we drive along a narrow road only 1 car width my heart is always in my mouth.

My DH drives along the A1 at least once a week, a round trip of 300 miles and says all the idiot drivers he sees swerving from lane to lane, undertaking, driving way faster than the speed limit etc are young - again almost all male

Mydogisthebest I totally agree, they also undertake you on roundabouts and then pull in front, use the horn instead of their brakes, don’t give way etc. I sometimes think it is the illegal drugs they must be consuming I think police should randomly drug test drivers as well as test for alcohol.
I drove in New Year’s Day to visit family and felt I put my life in their hands. I have never seen such erratic, dangerous driving on a motorway.

DP drives on average 26,000 miles a year. He endures all manner of batshit drivers of all ages, no-one seems to give a fuck anymore on the roads.

The RF PR team are out in force on this thread!

Don’t be utterly ridiculous. People are allowed differing opinions.

“They hide away in the stastics through driving small amounts locally once a week. “

And similiar comments..,

Actually the stats show that drivers in the older age bracket drive MORE miles than the 24 year olds who are in tne highest group for crashes.

I drive on Norfolk A roads. People regularly travel at 80mph on straight stretches. I hate Norfolk A roads. Lack of public transport and villages and amenities being a long way apart means that there are many teen drivers. In one school alone last year two teens, driving suped up cars, died in separate incidents in rural roads.

All drivers need to know they are fit and competent to drive.

We do not know whether the cause of this crash was linked to age, speed, anything.

“There are shit drivers everywhere and of every age.”

Agreed, and even good drivers can have an accident. You are only as good a driver as you are in each individual moment.

Why can't all cars be fitted with a black box? At least then insurance companies could actually pinpoint the truly bad drivers and penalise them accordingly.

Weetabix - I'd say the cost would be prohibitive, increasing numbers of dashcam will make a huge difference to the insurance industry imo and are a very cheap way to help in all kinds of situations

FFS there's elderly and there is NINETY SEVEN!!!!
He can barely walk but he's fine to drive?

The whole thing is insane.

I'd imagine that a black box in every car would reduce the amount of fees that lawyers and solicitors can get their hands on from road traffic accident claims
any bodies that stand to lose out financially will work to stop this happening

the first souvenirs are already hitting etsy

“He can barely walk but he's fine to drive? “

You know some people can’t walk at all and are fine to drive?

Well I can barely walk but can drive. That’s what my walking stick & wheelchair are for.

The Ignorance on this thread. If he was incapable of driving someone somewhere would have said something.

Weetabix - I'd say the cost would be prohibitive,

Would it though? My dd has one in her car and it's massively reduced the premiums. Her insurance now, at 19, is only about £200 a year more than on our family car where my husband and I have full NCD.

*"He can barely walk but he's fine to drive? “

You know some people can’t walk at all and are fine to drive?*

I know that.
My uncle was in a wheelchair. He couldn't walk but was a very good driver.

I am talking about general frailty. Which is completely normal for a NINETY SEVEN YEAR OLD MAN.

Frail elderly people should not be operating heavy machinery, surely that's just common sense?

Rumpler

I love it

There are good and bad elderly drivers and good and bad young drivers.

This is not good vs bad, but different phenomenons. No one sensible disputes that younger drivers have more accidents, generally caused by inexperience and overconfidence. This has been tackled by a series of measures like making the driving test progressively more rigorous, a theory element, a 2 year probationary period and with motorbikes a series of restrictions on what types of bike new riders can access. Licences issued adter 1997 also restrict newer drivers abilities to tow heavy caravans or drive minibuses.

Eventually most of this cohort will improve, learn they aren't indestructible etc and gain experience. They will be far better drivers, in most cases by thr time they are 27, compared to 17. For this group thr problem is behavioural rather than a physical or mental decline.

The reverse is almost certainly true of an 87 year old let alone a 97 year old. As we age, we suffer slow irreversible physical and mental decline at which point we shouldn't be allowed to operate a two tonne killing machine. The cut off point will come sooner for some than others, but it is striking that whilst we have ever stricter legislation impacting on yoinger drivers (and a good thing it is too) older dangerous drivers whose poor driving is caised by irreversible decline are effectively left to police themselves. In my view post 70 you should have to submit to regular medical tests when your licence comes up for renewal (every 3 years) and with an absolute cut off point of 85 when you surrender your licence. I'm sure there will be many citing grandparents who are still competent drivers, but equally there may well be people who are mature enough to learn to drive at 15, but an age lomot of 17 is in place for sound reasons. A line has to be drawn somewhere.

I actually feel sorry for the D of E as well as obviously the family in the other car. He will be under huge pressure to give up driving and it must be horrible to give up your independence and realise you are coming to the end of your life.
Apparently he told an eyewitness the sun was in his eyes. If that was the case, he should have made the manoeuvre. Bad judgement.

Incidentally I really hope the family don't get pestered by the media.

Accidents happen to drivers of all ages and abilities and at the moment, nobody really knows what happened.

Okay he's 97 and had accident but whne did heast have one? There are people fresh for passing their test who cause crashes, those with years of experience having crashes. It's just chance sometimes.

'horrible to give up your independence and realise you are coming to the end of your life.'

Yes, horrible. But elderly drivers who do lack the cognitive speed to react to situations should not be driving. They will wreck lives. Take that from someone who has been a victim of it.

Yes, young drivers, middle aged drivers drivers with bad luck etc, all do it too. But I am shocked by the amount of people on here who seem to think there is nothing wrong with a 97 year old driving. There is absolutely no chance that his reactions are quick enough. His independence is less important than everyone else on the road.

Only skimmed the thread. From what's reported of the circumstances of the accident, he's pulled out of a side street without properly looking and caused a crash. That's something drivers of all ages do. And everyone thinks they're a good driver until they have a crash (and many still insist they're a good driver afterwards).

Not saying age wasn't a factor, but at this point there's no reason to think it was.

Okay he's 97 and had accident but whne did heast have one?

According to the media he has had several over the years.

Arguably he is someone who has driven a lot of miles in what is a long life and consequently, statistically likely to be involved in more accidents.

But. It's still not his first accident.