Pensioner with undiagnosed Alzheimer's and tragic death of baby

[Kindofcrunchy]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-62503903

Can't believe there are no threads on this, or maybe they've all been removed so far, I don't know.

Maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones but I can't stop crying over this. What a tragic waste of life, easily prevented by family and friends of Robertson speaking up when they had concerns over her health. This just goes to show that there needs to be regular driving tests for people of retirement age.

Such an awful case. I hope it encourages people concerned about an elderly relative’s driving to take action.

Shelagh Robertson showed no sympathy and no remorse' for the baby’s death. His poor parents had to move away from the village in the end.

Absolutely shameful.

That's just it. If she's completely incapable of remorse, why haven't her family made a statement or a gesture on her behalf? If it was my husband who did this, the guilt would break me, I would be distraught for life.

Its a tragic case and the A10 is a very dangerous road. I hope the family’s case against the council for the road being unsafe for pedestrians goes well.

Shelagh Robertson had undiagnosed Alzheimer’s at the time of the accident, it wasn’t apparent enough for relatives to note she was unsafe to drive. They had no concerns about her cognitive abilities at the time. Also she didn’t hit the baby and mum with her car, it was her pulling out that caused another driver in a van to mount the pavement and hit them. So with her Alzheimer’s she may not even be aware half the time that an accident occurred at all. So the fact she has no remorse is consistent with someone who literally can’t process short term memory into long term memory, and so just doesn’t remember events.

Poor baby. That photo of him had me tearful as well. Beautiful boy.

Is she capable of either of those emotions? How advanced is her dementia? We're applying our own moral compass to the case which doesn't necessarily fit/apply due to her condition.

Utterly, utterly tragic and I just don't understand the law of self-confirmation when it comes to renewing your licence at 70 onwards. An objective examiner (whether this be a driving or medical) should absolutely be compulsory.

It’s about time drivers had to retake their test or at least do some kind of hazard perception/ reaction time test like the theory one once they get to a certain age and then at regular intervals after that to assess them regularly. I’ve had and seen a few near misses in the last couple of years all involving very elderly drivers - something needs to change

I feel so sad about this case too

Any baby’s death is tragic but his parents had been trying for 5 years and conceived him via IVF, somehow it makes it a tiny bit more sad knowing how hard it was on them

I've read that a friend of hers had noted a decline in the quality of her driving and general cognitive ability (struggling with knitting and also with her eyesight, which is a red flag in itself). I find it hard to believe that none of her friends or family would have noticed a difference in her whatsoever. Some responsibility needs to fall on them for not flagging her declining health sooner if they had any doubts at all.

How utterly awful. Those poor people. Can't even imagine how broken they must be.

Goodness, how very sad. Poor poor parents.

yy Shirley, I know exactly what you mean.

If she has Alzheimers or similar then no, she may not be capable of remorse.

Difficult conversations to be had with our older rellies friends, or with anyone you have concerns about, wrt their driving abilities. Don't forget you can tell their GP of your concerns if the opportunity for a conversation doesn't present itself.

(She had better not make an Ernest Saunders/Guiness type of recovery. )

Family and friends may have spotted changes and been concerned about her driving. But it's very hard if the elderly person is determined not to stop driving. We went through it when my grandad's eye sight deteriorated. He was incredibly stubborn about it and used to lie to us about it. I can't remember how it came to a head now but we were all relieved when his license was removed.

This case made me really angry. I suppose we can't argue with the verdict but it's absolutely shocking that the driver got off scot-free. She shouldn't have been driving and literally killed someone. Terrible legal system.

It's incredibly sad.

But I find it odd that some people (ie some posters here) always want to find someone to blame. She had dementia, she didn't have any close family, so no one really noticed. It was an accident. We have no idea if she feels remorse or not, or if she is capable of that. She doesn't have anyone to issue a statement on her behalf, and what would be the point anyway?

Testing of older drivers is one solution, but there would have to be evidence that unsafe older drivers were a significant issue for all the extra work for GPs that would create. I'm guessing young drivers are probably more of an issue.

It's a tragedy of course. But bad and sad things do happen.

@Luredbyapomegranate - I agree with your sensible post. Also, I have known several young people who have shocking eyesight but have never bothered to get tested, and I shudder to think of them driving, but people never seem concerned about that. I hate this current trend of someone having to be blamed for everything - accidents do happen, and blaming someone doesn't change things for the dead . I'm not in the UK, but older drivers here need to produce a medical certificate every few years, and their GP can request they sit a driving test if they are concerned. However, my DM always passed the medical, and yet she had mild dementia which she managed to hide rather well.

Its not easy to stop someone driving due to possible dementia - 25 years ago my father was slipping into dementia but my mother had died suddenly a few years before and he was living on his own 3 hours from me and 1.5 hrs from my sister. We agreed that we had to stop him driving so took the car and his keys away.

For a few weeks he thought the car was getting fixed in the garage and then got used to it not being there. We were only able to do this because he was amenable. Not all elderly people are this docile.

unless it has changed since then over 70s just get a form signed by the GP to say they are still able to drive - no test. A short conversation is not enough to decide if someone is still capable - it is a farce. Most people who have dementia dont know they have it.

This comment doesn’t sit right with me, Mrs Robertson may not have the capacity to recognise and understand her involvement in the accident. Having dementia isn’t ‘shameful’ and there are simply no villains in this horrible tragedy.

As for “why didn’t anyone notice?”; some people with dementia are incredibly good at masking and may appear outwardly ‘normal’ to their family and friends.

RIP baby Louis, I hope his parents are surrounded by love and support, and that Mrs Robertson is now getting the care she needs.

We sold my mums car when she was diagnosed ! I didn't want blood on my hands regardless of how angry she is about the whole situation!

FFS she’s in her 70s! Your health steadily declines from age 30 onwards. Your list just sounds like a bunch of unhelpful hindsight of very minor things that no one could tell whether it was normal aging for a 70+ yr old or Alzheimer’s. By the way eyesight and hand dexterity have fuck all to do with ‘cognitive ability’ and everything to do with being over 40 when presbyopia and arthritis starts to kick in. I don’t think anyone could suspect a 70+ yr old of having Alzheimer’s because they need reading glasses and their hands are less dexterous at knitting.

I find it hard to believe that none of her friends or family would have noticed a difference in her whatsoever. Some responsibility needs to fall on them

Why are you so desperate for someone to be punished for what was a tragic accident? This is why witch hunts happened. I thought we’d evolved past the some one must pay, scapegoat mentality,

Young men aged 17-24 have more accidents than people with mild dementia

Some form of responsibility needs to be taken for people to realise they can't just get in their car and drive whenever they like when their health is declining. It's no good if people just think "it's fine, I feel a bit dodgy but if I have a little crash I'll just get a slap on the wrist and get away with it". There needs to be an actual deterrent or new law in place so that people know you can't walk free from this, you HAVE to stop driving. Robertson may have just been involved in this incident rather than actively killing the baby herself but she's walked away free from any kind of repercussions and that is the part that doesn't sit right with me.

Do you think she was advised to do so for the case?

At the first sign of trouble we forced our 82 year old mother to stop driving, she didn't take it well but it was for other people not her.

A couple of years later was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

The sign of trouble was going to Tesco in the car, forgetting she'd gone in it and returning home on the bus. Remembering car in the middle of the night, walking to Tesco, getting the car and telling us, because there were no other cars around, couldn't remember which side of the road to drive on.

Her driving days ended that day, I took the keys away and surrendered her license.

Why are you so desperate for someone to be punished for what was a tragic accident? This is why witch hunts happened. I thought we’d evolved past the some one must pay, scapegoat mentality

I totally agree. Accidents happen, they have always happened, and unless it is a clear cut case of negligence they need to be treated as accidents. What would punishing this woman actually achieve?