Elderly unsafe driver

Brie

I'm reminded of the time I was on the bus to work and a elderly couple got on and she was shouting at him "yes, it's a bus, no, you can't drive your car, you don't have a car anymore, yes, you have to take the bus instead." It was obvious that he didn't know that this big red vehicle was a bus full of strangers as he went on to grumble about why there were so many people in his car that he didn't know. She then turned to us stunned passengers and said "we took his keys away from him last week as he can't see well enough to drive anymore".

It was both funny and sad as he was obviously so confused and she was obviously trying her best. My mom was almost at that same point when my brother hid her keys so she didn't wander off to the shops to buy more gin.

WellKnownSid

I remember a recent incident at our local supermarket. A little old lady turned right into a parking space - but about three feet too late, colliding with the corner of the car next to her.

In true Homer Simpson style she then needed “a whole lotta floorin” to power her car into the space. Thankfully her clutch and tyres held out and she managed it beautifully before collecting her shopping bags and walking into the store.

Tree_pipe99

In a similar situation my wife had a quiet word with elderly relatives doctor. Doc contacted DVLA who wrote to him saying he would have to take a series of tests to keep driving. He gave up at that point (and never knew it was my wife that instigated it).

daveyjp

If he genuinely hit another vehicle at 29mph I'm amazed he was in a fit state to walk away.

born_again

If he drove off after hitting another car, then that is a reportable event.

Police should attend & have a strong word with him.

badmemory

Be careful if you get his doctor to contact DVLA & get his licence stopped. A friends daughter did this but no-one bothered to tell him he had lost his licence. He got it back a few months later as it was only temporary.

Okell

I too am curious to know how the OP knows the accident happened at 29mph and how the elderly driver managed to drive away from it.

I've had a collision at less than 29mph and airbags went off all over the place and the car was a write off.

And who stopped him? The other driver? The police?

Herzlos

Presumably he admitted to the accident, but none of his details can be regarded as accurate.

I'd be taking the car off him in the short term to "get repaired", as he'll likely be more amenable to that. I'd also be contacting the local police to have a word and making sure the 3rd party knows his insurance details.

I'd also get a dash cam fitted to the car as soon as possible, and probably also look at some kind of ODB logger / black box. Again you can lie and say it's to cover him because of how bad other drivers are.

Both will be pretty good evidence when you're trying to prove to him / his doctor that he's not fit to drive.

elsien

Fairly sure my mother would not agree to having any sort of monitoring blackbox system. And I certainly wouldn’t be lying to her about the reasons why.
Or trying to take the car off someone by pretending it needs to be repaired, given the presumption of capacity unless evidenced otherwise.

use the legal mechanisms available to you. It’s what they are there for.

EnPointe

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894673#Comment_81894673

in a reasonably modern vehicle hitting another vehicle at 29 mph is often a 'walk away for it ' collision especially if you run into the back of another vehicle which is punted forward