AHHH sick of elderly/tourist drivers here!

I live in the retirement capital of the US and tourist central for the area. So we get MANY people who can't drive or drive like maniacs and it's highly dangerous for locals here, no joke.

I was just at the grocery store and was hit, well my cart was, by some old friggin lady who shouldn't have been behind the wheel of her bus of a car. She could barely see over the steering wheel and when she hit my cart she KEPT going, not even trying to stop! I was so freaked out because I'm pregnant! I mean she just went right thru the stop sign into the walk way and came right at me and if it wasn't for my cart she would have HIT ME! I was yelling and she was in her car mouthing "oh sorry" yet she KEPT FRIGGING GOING!! She didn't even stop! I was so pissed. I wanted to ram my cart into her car and throw anything heavy at her window. This is sadly quite common here esp with the elderly.

I am sorry I don't care but at a certain age you should be REQUIRED to take a driving test! I guarantee half the people in this area wouldn't be behind the wheel of a car if tests were in place. The last place I worked we had mostly elderly customers and it was SCARY to see them pull up and or even walk, knowing that it took 10mins to come 10ft yet they had a drivers license....which to me is a license to kill for these people who have CLEARLY lost their reaction time! It sucks getting old yes but it also sucks that i have to constantly deal with the dangers of them on the road here. They cause a lot of accidents because they just aren't all there up stairs!

Now tourists you aren't off the hook either. This isn't NYC nor is it NJ so please stop driving like it is! Stop crossing 2 lanes to get into a turn lane and causing car pile ups! I can't tell you how many tourists have cut me off and just don't follow simple road rules! It's like they forget how to drive because it's some place new! PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROADS WHEN YOU GO OUT OF YOUR OWN LIVING AREA! I was hit by a drunk driver who was from out of state last year. What a shocker!

This area is small and condensed and people just don't care! They drive like friggin maniacs. Right now all I see are Canadian tags! No offense to Canadians I love Canada but damn you snow birds, learn to friggin drive! It is not ok to cut me off at 50mph to go 35mph because you want to look at the damn scenery! It is not ok to cross lanes of traffic to make your turn! AHHHH! It has got to stop!

You can say what you want about my rant but it's just that a rant. If you don't live in this area you really have no right to say anything because you have no idea how it is. I have lived in many other places but this is definitely the worst. I try and drive at times when there won't be people on the road but that is difficult with it being snow bird season and tourist season so they are ALWAYS there! It seems like every day I have a run in with one or the other, it's never a local! It's either some elderly person or someone from out of state!

I am still freaked out from the parking lot today. I have a hard time driving as it is since my accident but the way people drive here makes it even worse and I never had a fear of driving before, ever....but when you are constantly run off the road or almost hit because of stupidity and carelessness it will make you not want to go anywhere!

Hopefully in the next year we will be out of this area and back to an area that isn't so condensed and full of road hazards in the form of elderly and tourists!


Oh and don't even get me started on the dumb tourists who just cross wherever and whenever they want to get across A1A. You have got to be lacking serious brains to NOT cross at a crosswalk here. No wonder people get hit by cars, it's their own stupidity!


Ok I feel better....

Did you call the police? Thats hit and run.

Is there damage to your car? She should have to pay for it if there is.

License plate #?

Sorry it happened, glad you're ok.

Don't worry by the time we get to that age we will be made into solent green.
I think over a certain age you should have to take another drivers test, did you read about the old dude who went for a drive and killed 6 people here in the UK due to him not driving well?

LOL you must be in Florida. I used to live down by Cocoa Beach and this is EXACTLY what you described. I would absolutely REFUSE to drive on I-4 through Orlando because of how people would drive. Even the tiny, two lane, back road I would drive to and from work was full of retarded drivers. That same road had a teen on a bicycle get killed because some tourist from New York, was going 80 in a 45 mph zone. (They gave the speed details in the newspaper the next day) I had to drive past the accident on my way home from work and it was BAD, let's just put it that way.

On a personal note, I told my husband and kids that if I ever got to where I couldn't drive to PLEASE tell me and I will IMMEDIATELY stop driving. I wouldn't want to be responsible for an accident that could have been avoided if I just swallowed my pride a little.

A south park episode about elderly drivers Music is a bit loud, has to do with copyright laws..

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by mblahnikluver


My heart goes out to you Dear One. Boy, can I relate to your rant.

I live on top of a mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains...Appalachian Trail runs almost through my property. When it comes leaf season around here....the tourists, who can't drive a narrow twisting mountain road, grab their cameras, jump into their land yachts, drive 500 miles of straight highway to come take pictures of the pretty leaves.

They drive bumper to bumper, 10 miles per hour, down the center line of narrow 2 lane mountain roads, because they are scared of falling off the edge. Then, when they feel like it....they stop!

Yep, right in the middle of the road, and all 4 land yacht doors swing open, disgorging up to six Q-Tip headed camera laden idiots....to take pictures. There is no parking on the side of the roads up up....no room for it. So, we locals, sit in our trucks and cars, waiting while they point at another leaf...and take another picture. 99% of them have Florida plates...need I say more. We locals call it Leaf Maggot Season....I love it when all the leaves have fallen off...then it's back to normal around here.

It will drive to you drink, I tell you.

Des

reply to post by mblahnikluver

Ahhhh the dreaded snowbirds... we had thousands of them in Arizona. You really haven't seen off the wall driving until you have lived through a snowbird season... between Phoenix and Tucson I lived in AZ for over 10 years and I have seen some wacky stuff. I remember one "low speed" highway chase in the late 90s in Phoenix; a snowbird was doing 25 mph on I-10... going eastbound in the westbound lanes. We had one very sweet old lady that got lost while visiting Luke AFB... we stopped her before she actually got to the flight line, but barely. I have seen them stop for no reason in moving traffic, stop on interstate on ramps unexpectedly, run red lights, stop at green lights, make right turns out of left turn lanes... it is insanity.
I will say that some of the most interesting conversations that I have ever had were with the snowbirds It is easy to discount them as just an annoyance, but I gotta tell ya they are some damned interesting people with fascinating stories about growing up here when this was still a free country.
Just don't ride with them

Originally posted by elevatedone
Did you call the police? Thats hit and run.

Is there damage to your car? She should have to pay for it if there is.

License plate #?

Sorry it happened, glad you're ok.

No she hit the cart. If she hit my new car I would have probably broken a window of hers lol Crazy hormones

She hit the cart I was using coming out of the grocery store. She just kept going! This is typical here. I"m serious it is. This isn't the first time it's happened but this time I'm pregnant and it freaked me out because she kept going!

I could probably document all these incidents that happen here and write a book on it. My friends all have their stories as well with the tourists and elderly of this area. I don't think they are bad people just bad drivers who shouldn't be driving or should pay more attention.

I had a very similiar incident a bit ago during the Christmas rush. The 'lil old lady just didn't run a stop sign but actually speed up when I was crossing. I jumped back with the cart but she still hit it. So I just pressed the cart into her car (A Cadillac) as she went by scratching it all down the side to the metal.

She never stopped.

I had another old lady pull a pistol on me once when she said I took her parking space. She wasn't even in the lane when I pulled in. I pulled my cell and told her I was calling the police. She took off swearing a blue streak.

There must be something in the water here.

Originally posted by boymonkey74
Don't worry by the time we get to that age we will be made into solent green.
I think over a certain age you should have to take another drivers test, did you read about the old dude who went for a drive and killed 6 people here in the UK due to him not driving well?

edit on 28-2-2013 by boymonkey74 because: (no reason given)

Yes I did hear about that. We had one lady go thru a storefront, TWICE! Storefronts here in many areas have big huge cement blocks blocking the way. Why? Because elderly going thru the front of stores happens more than you would think! They don't reverse and floor it and end up inside the front of a store. It's insane.

I really think that at a certain age you should have to take a test to make sure you still have reaction time and know the friggin rules. I have seen many elderly people just go at a red or turn on a red when they see an arrow for another lane. It is literally like that here. I lived an hour north of here and it wasn't that bad there. In this area it is just unreal.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Yes. write that book mblah. You could title it...

Chronicles of the Q-Tip Highway....

That's what we call them here, in my neck of the woods. They look like Q-Tips driving from behind...all you can see it the tippy-top of a white head over the steering wheel;...

Des

Originally posted by Ranthenae
LOL you must be in Florida. I used to live down by Cocoa Beach and this is EXACTLY what you described. I would absolutely REFUSE to drive on I-4 through Orlando because of how people would drive. Even the tiny, two lane, back road I would drive to and from work was full of retarded drivers. That same road had a teen on a bicycle get killed because some tourist from New York, was going 80 in a 45 mph zone. (They gave the speed details in the newspaper the next day) I had to drive past the accident on my way home from work and it was BAD, let's just put it that way.

Hello neighbor! I'm in that area, the Cocoa Beach area is exactly what I"m talking about! Oh Orlando and I4 are NIGHTMARES! I had to take I4 years ago for school and it was scary. Yea back roads are nice but you have people esp from out of state who don't know that many roads here are one way so they will cause accidents by NOT reading street signs that are clearly posted! They are usually too busy taking pics or on their cell phones.
Orlando driving is scary. I hardly ever go to Orlando and if I do it's to one mall and I use 528 which is better than I4. I4 is constant construction and always congested.

A week after my accident I had some tourist from NY taking pics WHILE driving. He was taking pics of nothing important, it was the bridge and there is no view from it! He had three people in the car yet he was taking pics and driving and getting into my lane. I had to slow down because he kept coming into me lane and almost hitting me twice. He winded up next to me at a light and I chewed him out for taking pics while driving and to have one of the THREE people in his car take pics and for him to pay attention to the road!

On a personal note, I told my husband and kids that if I ever got to where I couldn't drive to PLEASE tell me and I will IMMEDIATELY stop driving. I wouldn't want to be responsible for an accident that could have been avoided if I just swallowed my pride a little.

Same here!

reply to post by Destinyone


OMG! I can so see people doing that. I have family that live up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and they have told me how people drive up there who aren't from the area. It's like that here only they are stopping to look at the beach or river or friggin Ron John's Surf Shop. I can't' believe how many people risk DEATH to take pics of a surf shop. lol


I have been up that way driving and I was not going to be that tourist! We drove the roads at the right speeds and only stopped where it was allowed! We still got amazing pictures of the mountains. It was so pretty up there, nothing like here. I"d rather have all that mountain view than the beach.

reply to post by madmac5150


LOL that sounds just like this area in Florida!

Oh the stopping at green lights, yes that is something I have witness being in the car with my fiancee's mom. She has done this on more than one occasion. I would rather drive than have her drive when we go somewhere now.

Yea the area I live in is 35-45 depending on the area but the lovely snowbirds go 10-20mph below that to sight see. It drives me nuts!

Oh I like the snowbirds as people but drivers, no thanks! I have met some really cool people from up north but like you said just don't drive with them.

I am glad you are okay!
I feel your pain with the idiot drivers, this is just our off season for them.
I can drive down an icy snowy highway easier than I can get into town in the summer time around here.

If it is any consolation, they should be migrating back up here soon, well at least the snowbirds anyway.
Stay safe!

Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by mblahnikluver

 

Yes. write that book mblah. You could title it...

Chronicles of the Q-Tip Highway....

That's what we call them here, in my neck of the woods. They look like Q-Tips driving from behind...all you can see it the tippy-top of a white head over the steering wheel;...

Des

BAHAHAHA! I love that name. Hilarious. Funny you mention the big cars, what is it with northerners and their SUVs and boat sized cars. Everyone here locally drives little tiny boxes, beach cars basically. If they have trucks or SUVs it's clearly to haul a boat or motorcycle lol.

I really wonder if it has to do with the climate the drive in mostly. Maybe big cars are better in snow? I have no idea, just a theory. lol

Originally posted by TDawgRex
I had a very similiar incident a bit ago during the Christmas rush. The 'lil old lady just didn't run a stop sign but actually speed up when I was crossing. I jumped back with the cart but she still hit it. So I just pressed the cart into her car (A Cadillac) as she went by scratching it all down the side to the metal.

She never stopped.

Sounds like the lady who hit me. Crazy!

I had another old lady pull a pistol on me once when she said I took her parking space. She wasn't even in the lane when I pulled in. I pulled my cell and told her I was calling the police. She took off swearing a blue streak.

There must be something in the water here.

She pulled a pistol on you?! OMG :O
Are you in FL too?

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Nope, Cleveland. Many of the old folks here think that everybody owes them respect automatically just because they are old. Some of the worst drivers in the world, very slow, no blinkers, etc.

If she had asked politely if she could have the space because of a bad hip or something, I would have gave it up.

I'm pretty sure that she had some type of mental issue.

To top it off, after the lady had left, my ex started yelling at me as if it was my fault. Just one of the small reasons she's my ex.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


The land yacht of choice with the seasonal leaf maggots up here, is the Lincoln Town Car, full-size luxury sedan.

I actually saw one with a little OLD Lady driver one time at our local store. She was getting gas...she got out to go pay and left her drivers door open. Guess what we saw...you'll never guess in a million years....

Ready?....

She had little blocks of wood duct taped to her gas and brake pedals so she could reach them while driving.

You've got to write that book mblah. I'll provide you with a whole chapter of *Tales from the Almost Crypt Dwellers*.

Des

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Oh... I mis-read...