Replies

"...but they'd BETTER tighten up the reigns on old people driving. There's more and more of them every year, so there's going to be many more fatalities if they aren't FORCED to stay off the roads."

Wow, Judy, I am a bit flabbergasted after your reading your remarks. Especially the one I have copied and pasted above.

I will say one thing, you are definitely a female. I guess we now know why women were not allowed to vote when this country was founded.

Who is "they'd?" Government, I presume.

Doesn't government get it's limited power from the people in this country?

Isn't it possible that traveling on the public roads paid for by gasoline taxes that all driver's of automobiles pay, have a "right" versus a "privilege" to drive their automobile at any age?

I can a least cite a constitutional basis for my contention (at the federal level, Amendment IX, in the state of Missouri where I live, Article I, Section 2) that all citizens have a "right" to operate their private automobile on the roadways they pay for.

You on the otherhand, use that old, worn out, tyrannically based "for the public good" argument to deny and disparage constitutionally protected rights.

Where is the constitutional basis for your contention that "old" people be "... FORCED to stay off the roads?"

Also, remember what goes around comes around. You will be old some day as well and this arbitrary denial of rights that you advocate, will apply to you.

I don't want anybody on the road who can't drive, period....

IF you can't see, if you can't hear, if you can't move fast enough to put the brakes on, or to steer thru traffic , or if your memory is such that you can't remember from one minute to the next, then you don't belong on the road....

We have had at least 3 alzheimer patients drive off and die in their vehicles out in the boonies, because their families thought that a little driving wouldn't hurt them...

Growing older is supposed to mean growing wiser...knowing your limits, knowing what you can do and can't do...

Did you miss this part of her post:

BTW, I will be 66 in a couple of months - so I DO have room to talk. Plus, I took my own advice and quite driving two years ago when it became apparent my eyesight and reflexes just were not GOOD ENOUGH. My ego or inconvenience pales in the light of killing some young person who has an entire life ahead.

It already applies to her in her opinion.

You apparently got so mad at what I said that you didn't read everything. I AM old. I also said that I voluntarily quit driving when I saw that I had become a road hazard - something I swore while I was still young that I would do..

However, I must not have been clear in what I said. I didn't mean SAFE drivers of ANY age should be forced off the road. Just those who refuse to acknowledge they no longer can manipulate a vehicle in a safe and sound manner.

So, am I forgiven?

Isn't it possible that traveling on the public roads paid for by gasoline taxes that all driver's of automobiles pay, have a "right" versus a "privilege" to drive their automobile at any age?

No one has the RIGHT to drive if by their actions they will cause harm to other drivers and passengers on the road. A driver's license is a privilege granted by the state, and the state can change the laws governing it. There have been many changes of late involving teenage drivers which didn't come about because of citizen votes. States made those determinations based on actuarial evidence regarding teenage drivers and fatal accidents. The same thing may happen with older drivers in the near future.