93-year-old's crash costs £60,000

el guapo · Post by **el guapo** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:27 am

93-year-old's crash costs £60,000.

Press Assoc. - 2 hours 45 minutes agoA 93-year-old man is to quit driving after causing £60,000 of damage in his first car accident.

(Advertisement)Jack Higgs, of Penarth, South Wales, is to relinquish his hitherto unblemished driving licence after writing off a Porsche 911 and damaging another when he reversed into them.

The former Pentecostal minister also wrecked his Ford Fiesta, which flipped upside down as a result of the collision.

The pensioner walked away from the accident without injury and was actually sweeping up some broken glass when Porsche dealer Dave Coombes arrived on the scene.

"I think he put too much on the throttle and hit a car in the street," said Mr Coombes of RS Porsche.

"He then put it in reverse with his foot still flat on the floor and hit the gates and proceeded to go full steam.

"There were two cars on the drive and he hit one straight on and went up the back of it and his car rolled over upside down and landed on an adjacent car.

"He then crawled out of the passenger window while he was upside down and he went into his house and got a sweeping brush and started clearing up the mess."

Mr Higgs told BBC Online: "I've been driving since I was 17, have a clean licence and have never even picked up so much as a parking ticket. I just don't know what happened except that I lost control as I was reversing and suddenly I had hit the cars.

"The next thing I knew I was hanging upside down in my car thanking my lucky stars I was still alive. It was a miracle I got out alive and I put it down to the power of prayer and God looking after me. But that's it - the end of my driving career, I'm never driving again."

Patsy Warnick · Post by **Patsy Warnick** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:56 pm

Had to be the Porsche

Not the Age of the man..

Good to talk to ya

Patsy

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:55 pm

You're right Fuzzy, we should all accept that one day we will be unable to drive for ourselves, but when the time comes i think we probably won't want to let go either, i have some relatives who are experiencing this now, they are obviously unable to drive safely anymore but are very insulted at the idea of there license being taken from them. my mom for example has recently been restricted to driving only in the daytime because she has lost her night vision, but at times she still wants to drive, i have to convince her to let me drive, i don't want to ride in the car with her trying to drive and i'm sure not putting my baby in the car with her driving!

Santanico · Post by **Santanico** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:00 pm

Well, I'm impressed he got to 93 with an unblemished record! Good for him! And also good for him for not making a fuss about how he's still ok to drive, nice to see some people know when to quit

BTW - 60,000 = AUD$127,168.33 That's a lot o' damage!!!!:eek:

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:27 pm

I have a neighbor who drives a 18 wheeler who was driving along one day and a car waiting to pull out into the road suddenly pulled out right in front of him. There was no way he could stop and he ran into the car killing the driver. The driver was an 84 year-old lady.

now that being said, i also know someone who's 16 year-old son was on his way to school and pulled out in front of a log truck, he died at the scene, so maybe age has nothing to do with it!

redfan29 · Post by **redfan29** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:07 am

who would have let him renew his lic. at that age anyways....dumb

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:45 pm

redfan29;839668 wrote: who would have let him renew his lic. at that age anyways....dumb

the DMV!:wah:

there's a lady from my church who recently went to the DMV at the age of 90 and they renewed her license!

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:01 pm

Before Sunset;840944 wrote: I wonder what their criteria is.

I don't know for sure but i think as long as you can walk in under your own power and can see well enough to pass the eye test it looks like they will give you a license.

i think you have to have an accident before then they start looking at you, i have an aunt who is in her eighties, she's diabetic, she passed out and wrecked, they took her license from her and had to have a letter from a doctor before they would give it back, and when they did it was restricted to 25 miles from her home.

cars · Post by **cars** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:36 am

Hope6;842506 wrote: I don't know for sure but i think as long as you can walk in under your own power and can see well enough to pass the eye test it looks like they will give you a license.

i think you have to have an accident before then they start looking at you, i have an aunt who is in her eighties, she's diabetic, she passed out and wrecked, they took her license from her and had to have a letter from a doctor before they would give it back, and when they did it was restricted to 25 miles from her home.
Here in Florida, walk in under your own power, means: shaking & moving at a snails pace, using a walker, barely able to see. No eye tests are required, or given, that's crazy! And also no reflex tests are required or given! "Breathing" seems to be the only requirement to renew license! :wah:

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:53 am

cars;842558 wrote: Here in Florida, walk in under your own power, means: shaking & moving at a snails pace, using a walker, barely able to see. No eye tests are required, or given, that's crazy! And also no reflex tests are required or given! "Breathing" seems to be the only requirement to renew license! :wah:

Wow! no eye tests? I didn't know it was like that in Florida, I would think one of the main things they would want to know is if you can see!:wah::wah:

i know my mom has no night vision anymore, if she hadn't had the eye test at the DMV she wouldn't have realized it, they restricted her license, she can only drive from 30 minutes after sunup to 30 minutes before sundown. I for one am glad we found this out, i now do the driving at night, it scares me to think she had been driving with my baby in the car!

Hope6 · Post by **Hope6** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:34 am

Before Sunset;842807 wrote: A little off topic, but this reminded me of the time I was driving in a van with a group of people. It was the middle of the night when, out of the blue, our driver shares with us that she's night blind!

OMG, that would have scared me to death, what did you do?