{"id":4662,"date":"2014-11-04T07:09:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T21:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=4662"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:17:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:17:55","slug":"having-that-conversation-with-grandpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/having-that-conversation-with-grandpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Having THAT Conversation With Grandpa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oldcarguy\"<\/a>It was one of those<\/i> conversations.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that I\u2019ve seen a look on my mother\u2019s face like that since my younger brothers were teenagers.\u00a0 No, my mum wasn\u2019t complaining about anything I was doing.\u00a0 What she was frustrated about was an upcoming conversation she was going to have to have with my 91-year-old grandfather.\u00a0 \u201cIf I ever get like that,\u201d she said through gritted teeth, \u201cjust take the keys away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tricky conversations she was having with my grandfather were about his driving.\u00a0 Yes, he still had all his marbles and his eyesight.\u00a0 He\u2019d passed his medical tests for driving.\u00a0 However, my grandfather is the stereotyped absent-minded professor who will serenely ignore all sorts of chaos around him and keep on going regardless.\u00a0 \u201cKeep Calm and Carry On\u201d is advice he doesn\u2019t need. He is the sort of person who would be so busy doing complicated mathematical operations with the numbers on the rego plate of the in front of him that he wouldn\u2019t pay much attention to the sirens blaring and bearing down on him from behind.\u00a0 He just couldn\u2019t see what the problem was about and why we were all making a fuss about how he drove around town without his glasses \u2013 he was going to the optometrist\u2019s wasn\u2019t he?\u00a0 And didn\u2019t he know the way there?\u00a0 OK, he wrote off his Fiat <\/a>Uno in one ding a few years ago and has had a couple of close calls in the Suzuki Swift <\/a>that replaced it.\u00a0 And so what if he dies in a crash \u2013 he\u2019s over 90 and ready to go, isn\u2019t he?\u00a0 So what was the problem?<\/p>\n

The problem is that we have all seen him making all those scary last-minute dodges, getting lost after a detour around road works sends him somewhere that doesn\u2019t look the way it did as he remembered it 30 years ago.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen him getting in and out of the car park and nearly collecting other cars and a tree.\u00a0 Quite frankly, I would rather ride in a car driven by my learner-licence teenage son than by my grandfather.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t want him to kill himself by accident in a car crash even if this idea doesn\u2019t bother him.\u00a0 He could easily take someone with him.\u00a0 Or he could not see that kid on a bike that he doesn\u2019t expect.\u00a0 My mother was having THAT conversation because a few people had expressed concern about his driving.<\/p>\n

Australia has phased out driving tests for older drivers on the grounds that a lot of older drivers are perfectly competent on the roads.\u00a0 Fair enough, too.\u00a0 You don\u2019t magically become exactly like everybody else the moment that you have a certain birthday.\u00a0 Older people need to stay independent for as long as possible, and this often means driving.<\/p>\n

However, there are some factors that put older drivers at risk.\u00a0 Older bones are more brittle and healing takes longer, so a ding that would merely bruise a younger driver could send Great-Aunt Mary to hospital with a fracture.\u00a0 Reaction times do get slower.\u00a0 Add in the way that a lot of older people prefer little hatchbacks that aren\u2019t quite as sturdy in a collision and you have a recipe for trouble, especially in combination with absent-mindedness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tricky, though, telling an older driver that they\u2019re becoming a hazard.\u00a0 It requires tact, sensitivity and delicate handling.\u00a0 I certainly don\u2019t envy my mother the task (and am grateful that she has given me permission to just take the keys when the day comes).\u00a0 Mind you, my mother already had THAT conversation once before many years ago when my grandmother\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s was starting to kick in and affect her driving.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s better for everyone if older drivers are honest with themselves about their ability to drive safely.\u00a0 The Transport Accident Commission has put together a list of warning signs that perhaps it\u2019s time to think through your options (hire a chauffeur? public transport?).\u00a0 These warning signs are:<\/p>\n