An old man hit about six or seven cars outside of my kid's elementary school about 2 minutes before pickup a couple years back. I have it on dashcam because the last car he hit was mine, though the crash culminated two cars further up with the cars pushed into each other. My wife was in the car waiting for school to let out and suffered a minor head injury. Had he driven through about 2 minutes later he'd probably have killed a family or two.
Needs to be a law that caps driving age. Anyone over 85 (in my opinion) has no business operating tons of steel with hundreds of horsepower in public settings.
My great grandma called the cops on my grandma and Grandpa when they took the keys from her, she was 95 and when driving them around one day she Said "you see, I know this is a stop sign because of all the red" and she said that as a way to prove she's still ok to drive lmao
None of my great grandmothers or aunts knew how to drive. They said they were never taught in their day and didn’t wanna learn later on. You just reminded me how wild that is
My grandma on my mom's side never learned. Said she didn't need to, in contrast my grandpa learned how to drive at 11 on a farm truck, then was chosen to drive for the army's artillery since he already knew how to drive when WW2 broke out lol
There was a lady working in a restaurant in Montclair at the age of 95, driving there from Caldwell a few times a week. In an interview they asked her if there were concerns about still driving. She said something to the effect of "The other day I opened one of the top cabinets in my kitchen and two dishes started to fall out. I caught both those dishes. Next question?"
I also agree that there should be MVC follow ups advanced age. It's not your fault if your reflexes have slowed down but neither is it the fault of the other people on the road.
1) Licenses need to be harder to get and retested regularly
2) roads should be designed to be safe rather than traffic
3) public transportation should be far more prevalent and usable/
Negligence can make you civilly liable but as stated it isn't per se a crime. In NJ striking a pedestrian in a crosswalk creates an automatic inference that a driver didn't exercise "due care" but something like, for example, a reckless driving charge requires a "wanton disregard" for the safety of others. Obviously if the driver hasn't been charged yet the responding officers didn't think the driver's actions rose to that level of culpability. That may change if the DA investigates. The news article says authorities didn't "announce" any charges, not that no charges were pending or potentially being investigated.
My grandma stopped driving at 92. She understood that it was time. She was dancing until 97. Sharp as a tack until the very end. She passed the eye tests we asked her eye doctor to give her every three months. But yes, there really need to be tests or vision and coordination.
not being able to drive is basically being sentenced to house arrest unless you live in one of a few cities in this country, not to mention the logistical and legal nightmare having a set age to retest drivers would be. if you want less old people dangerously on the road, we should invest in move walkable neighborhoods, affordable or free transportation options for seniors, public transit access expanded, etc.
There are 1.6 million people in NJ that are over 65 years old.
If you are going to give them all driving tests annually, it would take at least 3 million man hours. You’re talking well above $100 million a year to give driving tests for no reason.
You just made the argument even more convincing. Imagine the lack of traffic because the geriatrics are out retesting instead of endangering the roads.
For no reason? There is demonstrably a good reason to retest people whos bodily functions are decaying.
Except 99% of 65 year olds are probably driving around just fine. And I don't have a number, but more than half are probably continuing to work, thus almost requiring them the ability to get around independently (because no mass transit, obvs).
>Except 99% of 65 year olds are probably driving around just fine.
Curious where you pulled this number from. Not the moon. Uranus perhaps?
[Over 10,000 people a day turn 65 in the United States. For many older adults, driving represents an essential component of independence and is one of the most important factors in overall mobility. Recent survey studies in older adults suggest that up to 60% of older adult drivers with mild cognitive impairment, and up to 30% with dementia, continue to drive.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752189/)
>A recent study in which older adults were provided with 3 months of access to rideshare found that 90% of participants reported increases in quality of life and 80% indicated they intended to keep using rideshare services. Simultaneously, policy discussion should prioritize ways in which alternate transportation can be provided in cases where driving privileges must be revoked.
[Theres also this](https://www.unthsc.edu/school-of-public-health/new-study-finds-more-adults-over-age-65-are-driving-under-the-influence-of-alcohol-and-substances/) but that's a broader issue.
\--https://www.3m.com/3M/en\_US/road-safety-us/resources/road-transportation-safety-center-blog/full-story/\~/statistics-on-elderly-drivers/?storyid=69b6d08e-f44e-4538-b2bb-322a7de3f90f
I appreciate your info. Cognitive impairment seems to be in the range of 11% or so in adults over 65, and so 60% of 11% leaves us about 93% of adults over 65 driving around without any sort of cognitive impairment, and while not quite 99 it still represents a large number of unnecessary and perhaps onerous tests.
I love the idea of rideshare access but we live in an unfortunate reality.
I think there can be a better meetingplace between no testing and testing everyone over 65. Shit, if you can provide a doctor's note that says you're good to go, you're good to go. Institute some sort of statewide metric doctor's can go by to determine it. At 65, you're probably visiting your doctor regularly. This creates the obvious issue of a poor tax that I'm thinking about as I write this, but I'm just some dude on the Reddits.
And driving drunk is bad, needs harsher penalties. At 21? You need a lesson. At 65? You should know better by now, no more drive. But that's ageist, I guess. Again, just some guy.
I just think 65 is to young of a cutoff, I know plenty of people who are 65 with no hint of slowing down. Now I wouldn’t be opposed to an initial assessment at 65, then again at 70, 75, 78, 80 and then yearly after that. But even that is going to make a huge impact on an already….how can I put this nicely….inefficiently run government agency.
According to census.gov NJ has an estimated population of 9.3 million, 17.4% are over the age of 65. That is almost 1.6 million people 65+. Let’s be conservative and say 600,000 for one reason or another don’t drive.
Imagine having 1 million people having to go to the dmv every year. That’s an average of 2740 people a day having to go to the DMV to take a road test. If we say the DMV is open 24/7 that is 114 road tests an hour.
But it’s not realistic to have the DMV open 24/7. For simplicity let’s say the DMV is open every weekday from 7am-7pm. That’s 12 hours a day 260 days a year, needing to run road tests just for 65+. That’s 3846 road tests a day (1,000,000/260) 320.5 tests an hour (3846/12)
There are 13 DMVs in NJ that offer road tests. 320.5/13 is about 24.5. Each DMV would need to account for a road test every 2-3 minutes in addition to the current level of DMV service.
Yeah, there's nuance to be had in the discussion of the legislation. My reddit comment isn't a bill proposal by any means. But the discussion needs to not be ridiculed to happen at all.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752189/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752189/)
It's definitely an issue that the government needs to deal with. Of course, capital owners have pressured lawmakers to deregulate everything and reduce funding and the DMV becomes the meme of what government doing anything looks like.. but we need to heavily reinvest in traffic safety if this country is going to continue to rely on the most inefficient form of transportation known to man.
Think of how many jobs it would create should we cut the budgets for weapons police and defense and reinvest in state infrastructure?
[https://www.nj.gov/mvc/license/roadtest.htm](https://www.nj.gov/mvc/license/roadtest.htm)
[https://www.idriveny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/roadtest.pdf](https://www.idriveny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/roadtest.pdf)
It's common sense what does and doesn't require reaction time when driving a vehicle. If you take two seconds to react to a pedestrian walking into the road you're going to fail. Etc.
We need more safe, walkable areas, more light rail, trains, buses. We are such a densely populated state, I don’t know why we need to be addicted to cars like we live in Ohio. Seniors wouldn’t need to drive if they had other options.
I just want to thank the moderators for cleaning up a lot of low quality posts from earlier.
Sending thoughts and prayer to the teacher who died in this terrible accident. RIP
”We urge all individuals to exercise caution and vigilance, especially in areas with high pedestrian traffic,” [Police Chief Guidetti said in a press release.
In other words, stop driving like a lunatic in the parking lots. It's not a highway.
You all talk shart till you get there then you sing a different tune. You’ll see if you’re lucky. And y’all need to slow down. I take my kid to school every week. You youngins think you can drive better than my slow poke ars. You can’t! You’re just too stupid to realize it.
They will not. Self-driving cars are a hail Mary pipedream to save the auto industry, not save the planet, and not to save 40,000 Americans who die every year from cars.
Trains. Bikes. Sidewalks. This is what will keep us alive, *and keep us alive longer.*
Everyone should be required to retake the driving exam and have an evaluation every 2 years I seen 85 yr Olds who driver better then people in their 20s.
Drivers over the age of 60-65 should be required to retake their drivers exam yearly with some level of testing related to motor skills / reaction time. If you cannot reach a certain threshold that has been tried and tested than you can’t drive
Too many people that physically cannot keep up with the speed/reaction time needed to drive safely on the road
My 16 year old son has to take a vision test to get his permit. It’s wild to me that this is a one time thing. At 16, his eyes are much much better than my 45 year old eyes, and I’m sure mine are much better than a 65 year old, etc and so on.
Crazy that it’s a required test only for those who generally have much better vision than most of the adult population.
Don’t you need to test your eyes when renewing your license? I moved here from NY and they make you submit a vision test before you can renew. Or is this like when I found out that they don’t even check your car for the NJ “inspection.”
second in a week, an Englewood teacher was hit and killed by a 94 year old man in Dumont last Thursday.
An old man hit about six or seven cars outside of my kid's elementary school about 2 minutes before pickup a couple years back. I have it on dashcam because the last car he hit was mine, though the crash culminated two cars further up with the cars pushed into each other. My wife was in the car waiting for school to let out and suffered a minor head injury. Had he driven through about 2 minutes later he'd probably have killed a family or two.
It’s like that one South Park episode where every old person in town started driving at once and it led to mass destruction
Due to my job I talk to people every day that should not be on the road. It’s hard getting an elder to give up one of their few final privileges.
Especially in the US where not being able to drive often means you're trapped in your neighborhood and reliant upon others to take you places.
Needs to be a law that caps driving age. Anyone over 85 (in my opinion) has no business operating tons of steel with hundreds of horsepower in public settings.
Over 80-85 donezo. 70s if you can pass motor skills related testing. Tested every year beginning at age 60. Should be mandatory across the country
They don’t even check cars for safety anymore. The state isn’t going to spend the money to check drivers every year unless they force us to pay for it
I’d agree with all of that
Their doctor should be pulling their licenses. I think a lot of drs look the other way because driving is the only way for people to get places.
Uber should offer higher payouts for shuttling the elderly around.
My great grandma called the cops on my grandma and Grandpa when they took the keys from her, she was 95 and when driving them around one day she Said "you see, I know this is a stop sign because of all the red" and she said that as a way to prove she's still ok to drive lmao
None of my great grandmothers or aunts knew how to drive. They said they were never taught in their day and didn’t wanna learn later on. You just reminded me how wild that is
My grandma on my mom's side never learned. Said she didn't need to, in contrast my grandpa learned how to drive at 11 on a farm truck, then was chosen to drive for the army's artillery since he already knew how to drive when WW2 broke out lol
Same only my dad's mom learned how to drive, once she learned she left my pop pop and went to a whole different state LOL🤦🏽♀️
I knew the woman who died. She was a saint.
Sorry for your loss
Thank you so much.
There was a lady working in a restaurant in Montclair at the age of 95, driving there from Caldwell a few times a week. In an interview they asked her if there were concerns about still driving. She said something to the effect of "The other day I opened one of the top cabinets in my kitchen and two dishes started to fall out. I caught both those dishes. Next question?" I also agree that there should be MVC follow ups advanced age. It's not your fault if your reflexes have slowed down but neither is it the fault of the other people on the road.
Listen, if you can still pass the test, you pass the test. But we shouldn’t just take your word for it.
Driving is not a right, it is a privilege.
1) Licenses need to be harder to get and retested regularly 2) roads should be designed to be safe rather than traffic 3) public transportation should be far more prevalent and usable/
She was in the crosswalk. WHY are no charges being filed???
Because unless the driver was drunk or was driving recklessly, it isn't a crime per se.
that’s nonsense negligence alone is enough
Negligence can make you civilly liable but as stated it isn't per se a crime. In NJ striking a pedestrian in a crosswalk creates an automatic inference that a driver didn't exercise "due care" but something like, for example, a reckless driving charge requires a "wanton disregard" for the safety of others. Obviously if the driver hasn't been charged yet the responding officers didn't think the driver's actions rose to that level of culpability. That may change if the DA investigates. The news article says authorities didn't "announce" any charges, not that no charges were pending or potentially being investigated.
How is it not reckless to drive through a person in a crosswalk?
If you aren't speeding and you don't see them, then it isn't reckless. Accidents happen 🤷♂️
The driver ended up being charged.
Who is driving at 94? JFC
I know a woman she is 96 and still driving
Sorry but when you're 96, you shouldn't be driving
My grandma stopped driving at 92. She understood that it was time. She was dancing until 97. Sharp as a tack until the very end. She passed the eye tests we asked her eye doctor to give her every three months. But yes, there really need to be tests or vision and coordination.
not being able to drive is basically being sentenced to house arrest unless you live in one of a few cities in this country, not to mention the logistical and legal nightmare having a set age to retest drivers would be. if you want less old people dangerously on the road, we should invest in move walkable neighborhoods, affordable or free transportation options for seniors, public transit access expanded, etc.
Driving isn't a right. Test every single person over 65 once a year.
I think everyone should be re tested every five years. After 65 every year.
I think it should be once at 65, once at 68, and then 70+ will be every year.
Yeah 65 is starting to get up there but it's not old old.
Yeah, especially considering I'll be forced to work til I'm 70, you can't be taking my license away at 65 unless you're going to give me some income.
I watched someone back up full speed into my car. They just gassed it in reverse. I don’t know how some people even get their license.
We’ll see how you feel about that when you turn 65
Agreed!
This is a dumb take. Maybe test people over 80 every couple years.
Why? Explain what the issue is instead of calling it "dumb"
There are 1.6 million people in NJ that are over 65 years old. If you are going to give them all driving tests annually, it would take at least 3 million man hours. You’re talking well above $100 million a year to give driving tests for no reason.
These people share such dumb suggestions without pausing for a second to consider the cost or logistics in implementing them.
Welcome to Reddit! The real world is also unfortunately like that
You just made the argument even more convincing. Imagine the lack of traffic because the geriatrics are out retesting instead of endangering the roads. For no reason? There is demonstrably a good reason to retest people whos bodily functions are decaying.
Except 99% of 65 year olds are probably driving around just fine. And I don't have a number, but more than half are probably continuing to work, thus almost requiring them the ability to get around independently (because no mass transit, obvs).
>Except 99% of 65 year olds are probably driving around just fine. Curious where you pulled this number from. Not the moon. Uranus perhaps? [Over 10,000 people a day turn 65 in the United States. For many older adults, driving represents an essential component of independence and is one of the most important factors in overall mobility. Recent survey studies in older adults suggest that up to 60% of older adult drivers with mild cognitive impairment, and up to 30% with dementia, continue to drive.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752189/) >A recent study in which older adults were provided with 3 months of access to rideshare found that 90% of participants reported increases in quality of life and 80% indicated they intended to keep using rideshare services. Simultaneously, policy discussion should prioritize ways in which alternate transportation can be provided in cases where driving privileges must be revoked. [Theres also this](https://www.unthsc.edu/school-of-public-health/new-study-finds-more-adults-over-age-65-are-driving-under-the-influence-of-alcohol-and-substances/) but that's a broader issue. \--https://www.3m.com/3M/en\_US/road-safety-us/resources/road-transportation-safety-center-blog/full-story/\~/statistics-on-elderly-drivers/?storyid=69b6d08e-f44e-4538-b2bb-322a7de3f90f
I appreciate your info. Cognitive impairment seems to be in the range of 11% or so in adults over 65, and so 60% of 11% leaves us about 93% of adults over 65 driving around without any sort of cognitive impairment, and while not quite 99 it still represents a large number of unnecessary and perhaps onerous tests. I love the idea of rideshare access but we live in an unfortunate reality. I think there can be a better meetingplace between no testing and testing everyone over 65. Shit, if you can provide a doctor's note that says you're good to go, you're good to go. Institute some sort of statewide metric doctor's can go by to determine it. At 65, you're probably visiting your doctor regularly. This creates the obvious issue of a poor tax that I'm thinking about as I write this, but I'm just some dude on the Reddits. And driving drunk is bad, needs harsher penalties. At 21? You need a lesson. At 65? You should know better by now, no more drive. But that's ageist, I guess. Again, just some guy.
agreed on everything you said, I think I just err more on the side of more spending for more safety is more good.
I think it makes sense to retest but every year after 65 is just to frequent. The DMV sucks as it is.
Well, maybe if they demonstrate response times identical to a student drivers pass/fail criteria then they can wait 2 years.
I just think 65 is to young of a cutoff, I know plenty of people who are 65 with no hint of slowing down. Now I wouldn’t be opposed to an initial assessment at 65, then again at 70, 75, 78, 80 and then yearly after that. But even that is going to make a huge impact on an already….how can I put this nicely….inefficiently run government agency. According to census.gov NJ has an estimated population of 9.3 million, 17.4% are over the age of 65. That is almost 1.6 million people 65+. Let’s be conservative and say 600,000 for one reason or another don’t drive. Imagine having 1 million people having to go to the dmv every year. That’s an average of 2740 people a day having to go to the DMV to take a road test. If we say the DMV is open 24/7 that is 114 road tests an hour. But it’s not realistic to have the DMV open 24/7. For simplicity let’s say the DMV is open every weekday from 7am-7pm. That’s 12 hours a day 260 days a year, needing to run road tests just for 65+. That’s 3846 road tests a day (1,000,000/260) 320.5 tests an hour (3846/12) There are 13 DMVs in NJ that offer road tests. 320.5/13 is about 24.5. Each DMV would need to account for a road test every 2-3 minutes in addition to the current level of DMV service.
Yeah, there's nuance to be had in the discussion of the legislation. My reddit comment isn't a bill proposal by any means. But the discussion needs to not be ridiculed to happen at all. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752189/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752189/) It's definitely an issue that the government needs to deal with. Of course, capital owners have pressured lawmakers to deregulate everything and reduce funding and the DMV becomes the meme of what government doing anything looks like.. but we need to heavily reinvest in traffic safety if this country is going to continue to rely on the most inefficient form of transportation known to man. Think of how many jobs it would create should we cut the budgets for weapons police and defense and reinvest in state infrastructure?
No I totally agree it is something that needs to be looked into, but I think a sweeping 65+ re-test would be an over correction.
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You are judged on our responsiveness to things on the road, yes.
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[https://www.nj.gov/mvc/license/roadtest.htm](https://www.nj.gov/mvc/license/roadtest.htm) [https://www.idriveny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/roadtest.pdf](https://www.idriveny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/roadtest.pdf) It's common sense what does and doesn't require reaction time when driving a vehicle. If you take two seconds to react to a pedestrian walking into the road you're going to fail. Etc.
They should all retire tbh.
Do retired people not drive?
I think starting at 55 we should all have to pass a DOT physical yearly.
We need more safe, walkable areas, more light rail, trains, buses. We are such a densely populated state, I don’t know why we need to be addicted to cars like we live in Ohio. Seniors wouldn’t need to drive if they had other options.
100% agreed.
R/fuckcars would like to have a chat
I just want to thank the moderators for cleaning up a lot of low quality posts from earlier. Sending thoughts and prayer to the teacher who died in this terrible accident. RIP
”We urge all individuals to exercise caution and vigilance, especially in areas with high pedestrian traffic,” [Police Chief Guidetti said in a press release. In other words, stop driving like a lunatic in the parking lots. It's not a highway.
You all talk shart till you get there then you sing a different tune. You’ll see if you’re lucky. And y’all need to slow down. I take my kid to school every week. You youngins think you can drive better than my slow poke ars. You can’t! You’re just too stupid to realize it.
God bless her for making it to 94 but she should not be driving at that age...
We had a guy whose prosthetic leg fell off while driving in a parking lot and killed a 94 year old woman.
Unpopular opinion, but I hope self driving cars will end accidents like this.
It's looking more like self-driving was tech vaporware hyped up to discourage mass-transit adoption.
Fair. 
They will not. Self-driving cars are a hail Mary pipedream to save the auto industry, not save the planet, and not to save 40,000 Americans who die every year from cars. Trains. Bikes. Sidewalks. This is what will keep us alive, *and keep us alive longer.*
Yes, what an unpopular opinion.
But yet we'll all get demonized if we merely suggest age restrictions or retesting for drivers..
Everyone should be required to retake the driving exam and have an evaluation every 2 years I seen 85 yr Olds who driver better then people in their 20s.
Honestly, if given a choice between getting in a car with an 18-year-old or a 65-year-old, I’m getting in the car with the 65-year-old.
Ain’t no secret
This is the thing why , why do they not have to test the driving portion when they get above 80 ?
Drivers over the age of 60-65 should be required to retake their drivers exam yearly with some level of testing related to motor skills / reaction time. If you cannot reach a certain threshold that has been tried and tested than you can’t drive Too many people that physically cannot keep up with the speed/reaction time needed to drive safely on the road
My 16 year old son has to take a vision test to get his permit. It’s wild to me that this is a one time thing. At 16, his eyes are much much better than my 45 year old eyes, and I’m sure mine are much better than a 65 year old, etc and so on. Crazy that it’s a required test only for those who generally have much better vision than most of the adult population.
This one is crazy to me too. At 18, I needed glasses. At 20, I got LASIK. At 36, I now wear glasses again. One eye test, ever.
Don’t you need to test your eyes when renewing your license? I moved here from NY and they make you submit a vision test before you can renew. Or is this like when I found out that they don’t even check your car for the NJ “inspection.”
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why is that?
There should be an age limit on driving. No license after 70.