Worried son says of dad, 92:
He didn't even know car was hit
SENIOR CITIZENS ON THE ROAD: WHEN SHOULD THEY STOP DRIVING?
February 14, 2008
THE 92-year-old made a wrong turn and headed into traffic.
Fortunately, his Cherry QQ brushed into only one car as the rest of the oncoming traffic had been held up by the traffic light.
He managed to make a U-turn and head in the right direction.
Mr Lim, who declined to give his real name, did not even realise that he had hit the car and his bumper had come off.
Understandably, Mr Lim's son John was aghast when he heard about the incident.
'The car looked like Arnold Schwartzenegger in the Terminator, his face melted with only two eyes left,' said John, 61, who does not want his father to be identified.
But what worried him even more was that his father had been unaware initially that he had been involved in an accident.
Said John (not his real name), a retiree, 'By golly, if he were a split second faster in turning, the other vehicle might have ploughed right into the side of his car.'
There are many others like John in Singapore with elderly parents who insist they want to keep driving.
Currently, there is no age limit for drivers except for those driving heavy vehicles. But those over the age of 65 are required to take a basic medical test by a Registered Medical Practitioner every three years.
But the statistics on elderly drivers paint a worrying picture.
According to police, the number of car drivers above 55-years-old killed or injured in accidents, rose from 169 in 2005 to 236 in 2006. Older drivers like Mr Lim only have to pass a fitness check to renew their licences.
John said that he has tried gently persuading his father to give up driving. His older sister, 65, had also raised the issue.
However, Mr Lim got annoyed.
'Why should I stop if I'm capable? I can handle it,' he told his son.
And John admits that apart from the recent incident three weeks ago, Mr Lim's track record has been clean.
'His health and eyesight are better than mine and he drives a manual car,' his son said.
John even tried to take taxis with his father while Mr Lim's car was at the workshop, pointing out that they were more convenient.
But while the elder Lim did concur that taxis were a good solution, he stopped short of agreeing to stop driving.
'That is part of the problem,' John said, 'because he is not unreasonably stubborn, I have less right to be assertive.'
'This is not a child we are talking about. He is an adult with mental faculties who will resent me.'
The Lim family is certainly not alone in dealing with issues of older drivers not knowing when to stop.
Dr Ivor Thevathasthan said that he had been trying to persuade his mother, 90 to quit for the past five years, before she came to her own conclusion to stop.
Dr Thevathasthan, 67, said: 'A vehicle is like a weapon. I am not worried about my mother's driving capabilities. I am worried that she cannot react to the reckless youngsters fast enough, especially impatient Singaporeans.'
Mrs Thevathasthan finally quit last year after suffering a bad fall.
The active woman told herself a car was a luxury she could do without since she had already reduced her the number of times she went out.
'Now, if people want me to attend weddings or whatnot, I make sure they pick me up and drop me off,' she said. She is Singapore's oldest Justice of Peace.
COMPLICATED ISSUE
Getting elderly drivers to quit is not just a problem here.
Dr Marion Somers, a renowned American expert on caring for the elderly, recently told CNN that getting her father to stop driving was one of the 'most serious and complicated issues' she had to deal with.
That is because it entails tricky issues of role reversal. Especially at a time when a parent's aging body may limit them physically, a car is one of the few ways for the elderly to remain mobile.
Both Dr Thevathasthan and John agreed that there should be no standard age at which the elderly are forced to stop driving.
'It is hard to draw the line,' said John.