Should Elderly People Drive Automatic Cars?
The other day l was in a car park and suddenly a car took off at great speed and smashed into three vehicles writing them and his own car off. He ended up down an embankment taking one car with him.
Three police cars arrived with loads of police and then an ambulance.
The elderly driver was fine but as l said, the cars weren’t! He said, he didn’t know what happened but he must have hit the wrong pedal.
He was breathalysed which was negative and the police said, it was purely an accident.
Do you think Automatic cars are unsafe for people of a certain age. Or is this something that could happen to anyone of any age who drives an Automatic?
Automatics - Elderly drivers + automatic = crash? - spog69
Having read HJ views on driving automatics with left foot braking to maintain full control of the vehicle, I wondered how many of the recent headline stories of out of control cars may be caused by 'pedal confusion’. I found that all these well reported cases all involved automatics and all driven by 80+ year olds as it happens.
Liverpool, 12 Feb 2016
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ol-school.html
Peugeot 107 semi-auto
Driver 80 year old woman
Westerham, Kent 24 December 2015·
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/24/severa...-shop-5583950/
Audi A4 3L Petrol Saloon Semi Automatic 2004
Driver 88 year old man
Guildford 23 rd October 2015
“Guildford crash: Seven people including baby and toddler hit as vehicle ploughs into crowd”
Polo DSG Automatic
Driver 80 year old woman
Kings Lynn 23 rd October 2012· “The moment a pensioner almost caused an explosion as she crashed into pile of gas canisters… at a busy petrol station”
Ford Fusion 1.4 Plus 5dr Auto
Driver female in her 80s
Hampstead 10th November 2012
A pensioner who killed a woman after he mistook the pedals of his car has been jailed for 18 months.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime...cedes-cras...l
automatic Mercedes 380SL.
Driver 83 year old man.
So pedal confusion panic could be a factor in all these cases (as could several other factors I admit) but instead of banning 80+ year olds from driving should we stop them driving autos or make left foot braking training compulsory (if that is even possible?)