My 82-year-old mother was driving home yesterday, on a busy main road, when her brakes completely failed (I might add, they were inspected and passed two weeks ago!). She saw she was about to coast into the car ahead of her at the stop light, so she quickly shifted into reverse, then drive again, and slowed down enough to not hit anything till the light changed. Then she turned into a parking lot, managed to maneuver into a space, pulled back the emergency brake and took the keys out of the ignition and stopped the car—all without so much as getting a dent.
I would have panicked and crashed headlong into a gas tanker.
So, next time you hear someone bitching about elderly drivers, tell them about my Mom!
Quick thinking by your mother! Unforturnately, I live in south Florida, and an amazing amount of elderly people still think they can drive as well as they did 50 years ago. To say the least, they are not nearly as observant on the road as your mother. It’s like a steady stream of Mr. Magoos in giant land yachts out to get me! Did I mention I hate old people? (perhaps that should be its own thread?)
Thanks for giving me another “Holy ----, I’m going to DIE!” remedy to add to my collection - you mother’s story is very “Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook”!
Your mother earns multiple gold stars in my book. Send our admiration her way for us, will ya?
wow, i wish we could clone your mother and replace all the old drivers in norfolk with her!
we have people that do the stupidest of things/ like one old guy i’ve encountered several times who insists on doing 20-30mph, on a wide 2 lane road. it’s unfortunately too windy to overtake him, and he will break down to almost zero when something comes the other way…
and the number of times i’ve nearly dtiched my car avoiding older people on the wrong side of the road…
Although you mother’s driving is top notch I might argue over why she would keep driving into a parking lot?
Of course I don’t know how the road looked at the time but once your brakes are gone, pulling into a parking lot and parking is a little insane.
And of couse if her hand brake was working, why didn’t she pull that instead of going into reverse? (I might add that many modern cars will not (AFAIK) actually go into reverse when still moving at speed foward). The driver training that I took stated go into neutral and use the hand brake until you stop.
Of course hind sight is 20/20 but I find it weird why we’re ok with anyone (young or old) endangering people by continuing without their brakes?
Ummm, she pulled into the first safe place she could find. The reason she was “continuing” is because she had no brakes. Could she have stopped continuing, she would have.
Sorry eve, I’m not trying to be snarky. You didn’t include enough information in your OP to decide if it was more dangerous to continue or not. I have to figure though that if traffic was light enough for anyone to continue into a parking lot and actually park the car it’s safer to just stop.
Like I said, hindsight and all that. It’s hard to judge which would have been safer, risk being rear ended or risk running someone over (IMO).
