Time to hang up the old driving gloves, Mrs Cordeau...
The caption to the photos is "Pictures from the CCTV footage", how did they get the lower one from the CCTV footage!?
;o)
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Did something similar myself the other day. There's a nice contour for me to rest my right foot in the footwell just off the gas pedal. I was at the lights, left foot on brake and I was having a really good stretch, hands on the ceiling etc. when my right foot slipped on to the gas. I was applying a fair old bit of pressure and even with a foot on the brake I shot right over the zebra and into the box before I caught it. It was a dead bank holiday fortunately, I was the only one around.
I'm 39.
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Premature senility perhaps BBD...
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I'm 39.
What? IQ ;-)
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can we have a vote about reporting her to the dvla before she kills someone ?
cant find the poll vote switch on this site
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HJ - I have for once (only) to disagree. To suggest people learn two modus operandi for driving manual and automatic cars seems a disaster-in-waiting to me. Further, it must take just as long to move the normally resting left foot to the brake, as it does to move the right foot from accelerator to brake. I believe the 'left-foot-braking' on autos is police guidance too. Extraordinary - to me.
(Ed V, please read the FAQ that explains eactly why I make this suggestion for manoeuving in confined spaces. HJ)
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Ed V i started copying hj's advice about left foot braking about 5 years ago and in any one day can quite comfortably jump from auto /manual/auto so i endorse his view.
Try it its easier safer and more controlled.
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When I had my Saab 99 auto for some reason I put it in to park at traffic lights well 1 down from park (instead of neutral) was reverse. luckily no one was behind when the lights turned green.
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I have said it before in this forum, panic attacks can occur, and have done, with people driving cars with manual boxes too. I know, because I was the victim and witness to an just such an incidence. I would imagine that these cases rarely get reported on.
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Across the road from myself when I lived in my flat a few years ago there was a row of garages. An old dear not once but twice in the space of four months managed to reverse out of her garage with the her foot firmly pressed on the accelerate straight into the metro of the woman who stayed below. The poor woman below only had her car back for about a month when the old dear did it again. The second time the old dear even managed to accelerate forward as well and rip off her garage doors. Lets just say my car as never parked near her garage entrance.
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I find I can comfortably left foot brake an auto car, a go-kart and a (manual) Elise on the track so as to balance brake and throttle and then resort to normal right foot braking when driving a manual car on the road.
It is rather like it being second nature to clutch with the left hand and change gear with the left foot when riding a bike even after a long spell of doing the opposite in a car.
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It could be that these incompetant drivers choose automatics, rather than the automatics being a factor themselves.
However, in a manual, it is more likely just to rev up with the clutch still in as I'm sure we have all seen OAPs do in supermarket carparks.
I once saw a Metro automatic being parked by an old lady, who push 5 cars into each other until there were no gaps between them.
Whan I came out of the shop, she was sat on a chair on the pavement with a lady from Tandys.
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I assume The Back Room is in agreement that young people in manual-geared cars don't have accidents
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Good point Colin, poor old gal made a mistake (there but for the grace of God and all that) and it's hardly grounds for "Time to hang up the old driving gloves, Mrs Cordeau...". If it was, there would be a hell of a lot of "boy-racers" (well, under 82-year-olds anyway) round our way who seem to have hit the throttle rather than the brakes judging from their car's position in the hedge/ditch who also need to "hang up the driving gloves."
Maybe she would be advised to have a medical to test co-ordination/reactions etc but let's not jump to conclusions.
--
Phil
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"Good point Colin, poor old gal made a mistake .."
Ah well, yes but.
We took that attitude with my father who was in his late 70s and started having the odd minor mishap when driving.. Then he hit a car a glancing blow.. then he pulled out from a road and hit anothr car.. and then we persuaded him to stop before he killed someone.
Imagine the reaction if the old dear has missed the pump, crossed the pavement, and killed a cyclist or pedestrian.
I'm afraid at her age, once you start to exhibit the signs of losing control, it just gets worse.
and worse. She clearly not only lost control of the brake/acclerator but of the steering as well. judging by the way she swerved around...
Once you start having accidents at 82 which are CLERALY due o driver inattention and/or loss of control, it IS time to stop.
Cos I assure you it only gets worse.
I suspect if she was asked to resit her test......
madf
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I agree entirely madf - that's why I suggested "Maybe she would be advised to have a medical to test co-ordination/reactions etc but let's not jump to conclusions. "
My old Dad, God rest him, seemed as fit as a fiddle (until that heart attack!) and went for a medical every year from age of 70 'til 80 for Doc to test his reflexes etc. One of the last things he said to me, after belting down the motorway at 70 + (mph not years) was to ask how he was driving. To me he was driving very well on the motorway, good use of mirrors, safe overtaking etc, etc, and I was very relaxed as passenger; he was precise and careful on some narrow country roads and when we arrived ( at yet another funeral of one of his old mates ) he did a reverse park which I would have been proud of. I asked why he was asking about his driving - he said that only others could judge, Doc said he was OK , he felt he was OK but despite that he was going to give up the car - why? because he just reckoned that he wasn't as good as he was and he didn't want to go past the point where others thought the same.
The clincher was he said, that he would then have the perfect excuse to walk (or in extreme weather get a taxi) and have that whisky which he couldn't have when driving!
--
Phil
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I agree entirely madf - that's why I suggested "Maybe she would be advised to have a medical to test co-ordination/reactions etc but let's not jump to conclusions. "
IMO if she wants to continue driving, she should have a compulsory test, not an advisory. My "hang up the driving gloves" comment was said somewhat tongue in cheek, because I know people of all ages make mistakes and have accidents. I know quite a few people who have written cars off before they were 20 years old. She may be a good driver and has made a one-off error, or she could genuinely be a danger to other road users.
About a fortnight ago I was in a Sainsburys car park and an old dear in an old (manual) Fiesta was backing out of a parking space. She was struggling to turn her head to see where she was going, she had the engine at about 4000 revs, slipping the clutch to crawl backwards and making a dogs dinner of it. I thought if her foot slips fully off the clutch now she could fly backwards into a car or person, and have no chance of reacting and hitting the brakes.
Doc said he was OK , he felt he was OK but despite that he was going to give up the car - why? because he just reckoned that he wasn't as good as he was and he didn't want to go past the point where others thought the same.
My Grandad was the same, he used to love cars but voluntarily stopped driving in his late seventies because he felt his reactions were not as good as they used to be and his hearing was going. Then he got to 80 and declared he hated catching buses and was going to get a motorbike to get his freedom back. I thought he meant an automatic scooter to pop to the shops on, but then he said he wanted a Triumph Bonneville 750! Luckily he didn't go ahead with the plan...
:o)
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I suspect if she was asked to resit the test, she may have trouble finding the test centre!
Thing is, have you ever tried telling a stubborn old person that they should perhaps stop doing something?
My nan has virtually no feeling in her legs and takes morphine for back pain, yet she still maintains that in an emergency she could drive an automatic ( all she could ever drive ).
I maintain that she would BECOME the emergency in about 5 feet.
Unfortunatly, with advancing age, often comes a certain degree of arrogance about ones abilities and if you do persuade one of these dangers to hang up their driving gloves, lucky indeed.
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People vary enormously. It isn't just a question of age. Some drive competently into their nineties.
If you yourself feel you shouldn't drive any more, or don't want to, that's one thing. If someone else tells me I am showing signs of dementia or 'extreme absent-mindedness', well, there are tests that can say whether it is so or not. Many have pointed out that it's quite easy to get it wrong by mistake, a one-off, in any car auto or manual. Perhaps that is all that happened to the lady with the upended motor in the forecourt.
I confess an interest here. I am in my late sixties, verging on middle age almost, and certainly won't take kindly to any cheek about my driving from any whippersnapper.
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But the lady's reactions were terrible, she could be forgiven for shooting forward say 8 feet and stamping the brake, but she couldn't get close to a pump despite numerous shunts, then couldn't move forward without zooming forward and left hitting a pump which was way across the forcourt and eventially tipping onto the side, thankfully she did, I shudder to thing where she would have stopped if the kerb was not high enough to flip the car over, and she says she saw a girl there which the CCTV shows there wasn't, so if you can not know what the hell's going on through all that, it is time to stop driving, I'm sorry to say, as I can understand how hard it is for old people to suddenly lose the car at the time of life when they need it the most, they tend to become housebound.
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Got to say that the Manager's reaction was pretty spot on. damn the wreck get the pumps switched off. Fair Do's his training really kicked in on this.
Gwyn
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Having got into my early seventies - (am I really that old?) I do find that my youthful enthusiasm is now tempered by the knowledge that my reactions are just a little bit slower and I drive accordingly. But I still love speed and a good blast on a clear road does wonders for the still youthful brain - I feel sixty again!
One day, when I have grown up, I will be as wise as Lud!
--
e Prof
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One day, when I have grown up, I will be as wise as Lud! -- e Prof
I hope you don't mean wiseass, Eprof... can't help wishing that I had grown up, but I'm afraid I may not have. Don't ask my wife whatever you do. She will betray me for sure.
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There is one thing which puzzles me about HJ's advice to use LFB. In fact it doesn't just puzzles me, it worries me.
And it's this: why on earth is this advice not printed in big red letters in the front of the handbook of every automatic-transmission car, and preferably in a few other places too?
I bought my first automatic car 8 months ago, having only ever owned manuals beforehand; I had rented and borrowed automatics, but never owned one. With the Almera, I decided to teach myself LFB, and it wasn't hard. After a while I realised that I was braking with the left foot all the time, so I had to relearn using the right foot when in the open road, because I'm rather persuaded by the arguments that it has some advantages there, and I like having both techniques available.
But for maneouvring, RFB is downright dangerous. This evening I was parking for dinner, on a bumpy cobbled street, and the final bit of maneouvring was reversing uphill, without much clearance from the car behind. I engaged reverse, and the car didn't move. I gave it a little gas, and it didn't move, so I gave it a ittle more ... and as I expected, the car surged backwards as the wheels mounted whatever bump was in their way.
In a manual, I'd have been slipping the clutch anyway, and would have simply pushed the pedal a bit more to disengage power, but on an auto that option doesn't exist: the only option was to brake. Which I could do immediately, because my left foot was in place: no drama, no fuss.
But in an automatic, if I hadn't had the left foot in place, I'd have needed lightning-fast reactions to avoid a crunch. I might have managed it, and I like to think that my reaction times are fast enough I would have mananged it, but I couldn't guarantee it.
It really horrifies me that older drivers with slower reactions (and reactions do slow as people get older), may buy automatic cars and find that the handbooks and other guidance tells them to brake with only the left foot. Some day, I hope that someone sues the idiots who give out such dangerous advice. [end rant!]
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