Elderly driver dies in head on smash, wrong way up the M1.

[Ems]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7126303.stm

What a shame. I have sympathy for his family.

Still, it's another of those elderly stories.

 

[pjg1979]

I don't understand how people do this.

 

[curtis]

because there old and they do not understand the way the road works anymore......soon as people hit 70 they should re-take their test!!

If that law was in place that man would probably still be alive today!

 

[ollyc98]

Even old people can see headlights coming towards them, he was probably doped up on some medication his doc gave him to ease the pain of being that old.

Oh no I forgot it's only teenagers that can drive drunk or doped.

 

[PeteST24]

And they blame us young drivers for driving wrecklessly...I have seen an old bloke go the wrong way around a round-about coming towards me...I was in a HGV at the time and the old bloke had to go on the round-about to avoid us!

Think they should retake the test at 60 then every 5 years from there.

 

[curtis]

but then again anything we say doesn't matter....its up to the goverment! #####

 

[hissyfizzy]

Why the heck were they going up the M1 the wrong way? Come on how can you have sympathy for someone who obviously has no idea to what they're doing it's fairly noticable that you are going the wrong way up a motorway

1 cars are coming towards you no with you (Thats a big hint somethings wrong)
2 signs are the wrong way rough
3 exists will be the wrong way round

Nearly as scary as those who learn to drive in the summer on one of these crash course thingys around 8 days in the nice sunny warm weather night doesn't come till late, then winter comes along how that messes them up

 

[Littlewood]

Why would you even end up getting on the M1 the wrong way?

 

[curtis]

i agree the juctions are angled away from the oncoming traffic....therefore he must have had to go around a VERY tight corner to get onto the slip road!

 

[Ceirwan]

To the older members on here, while i am aware that all of your are probably great drivers, so don't take this personally, once past a certain age there should be compulsory retaking of the test, say like 70 years old?
As the change is gradual a lot of people don't notice the fact they are having more trouble, as an example here is what i saw one old woman (70 ish i reckon) doing today:

A car exiting the roundabout from the other direction had to slam on his brakes because she was creeping round at about 5mph.
I feel just as sorry for the bloke in the Accord, he'll have that on his conscience for a long time and he did nothing wrong.

 

[ollyc98]

You would have complained just as much if a boy racer came up to the roundabout and handbrake turned (instead of the U-turn) lol. Old and young drivers are just as dangerous.

 

[Arnold]

We've had this discussion before though Olly. Young drivers are usually idiotic by choice. Older drivers cause danger without realising.

 

[sonic]

Here we go again !!!

 

[Ceirwan]

Not all young drivers are idiotic, not all old drivers are senile.
If some young driver has been an idiot and caused lots of other people danger then he should be banned from driving...
Likewise for old people, but in this case, with a retake of the driving test then it could have been prevented, i'm not one for the nanny state but incidents like this are just mad. Remember he probably never took a driving test in the 1st place.

 

[ollie240585]

I do find it difficult to understand how someone can go the wrong way down a slip road. I recall another elderly person doing this not too long ago for about a 3 mile stretch!
Many of you are saying that elderly people should re-take a test, these people have many years experience of driving, but there body and mind may not be up to the task of driving. But you can look at it the other way, that many young drivers do not have the maturity to drive! We may have better reflexes, but we do not have the experience that the older person may have.

There's no point going off that old people should be re-tested as sweet FA is going to happen, so why bother going on about it!

Live with it, there's awful drivers on the road from all walks of life, young, old, middle age, men, women.

 

[SammoHung]

because there old and they do not understand the way the road works anymore......soon as people hit 70 they should re-take their test!!

If that law was in place that man would probably still be alive today!

IMO everyone is different, and you can become dangerous or incompetent at driving at any age after your L-test.

For this reason I think retests should be more regular (5-10 years) and should not be based on L-test

 

[ollyc98]

What's the problem here? this is proof that bad drivers kill themselves off, it's like global warming, the problem will sort itself out.

 

[Ceirwan]

And if he'd killed the poor bloke in the Accord..?

 

[ollyc98]

But he didn't, he was probably driving a 50 year old volvo. The accord is a bit safer.

 

[sonic]

nah, it was a clio wasn't it.

 

[ollyc98]

Yes lol, I should really read

 

[Fordy]

my opinion on this thread,

granny cant drive and ends up dead. oh well!

we young drivers are getting arse raped on insurance purely because we have been branded as boyracers etc and old people get cheap insurance yet cant drive to save there lives! it ####es me off,

younger = easy to get out of problems = still fresh in brain on how to drive!

older = to old to turn ignition key = going up m1 wrong way! ends up dead causes a mess that others have to clean up