Senior moment

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wallingd

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 8, 2005
Messages
2,039
(Not me.)

A recent factual scenario follows.

Elderly man (early 80s) driving home from country village during recent sudden & heavy snow flurry. Very careful all the way home with little traffic. Reaches home & pulls on to drive. Approaches garage door. Car starts to slip slightly. Brakes gently applied. Accelerator pressed accidentally instead. Car careers into garage, damaging bumper + both front wings + ripping solid wooden garage-door frame from its fixings. Car (non-Merc) is worth £1500 tops. Total repair bill to car estimated at £1800. Insurance covers everything - garage door £200 excess + car also £200 excess - due to owner saying damage is due to "vehicle hitting the building". So car avoids being a write-off. Reality is of course the accelerator was pressed due to the driver muddling his pedals up. Scares the life out of passengers & has back-seat-driven to such an extent has had drivers shouting at him to shut up. Also critises a former IAM observer.

Discuss.
 
It sounds like he should maybe consider hanging up his driving gloves and get an account with a local cab firm instead.
 
Total repair bill to car estimated at £1800. Insurance covers everything - garage door £200 excess + car also £200 excess - due to owner saying damage is due to "vehicle hitting the building". So car avoids being a write-off.

What difference does that make? Seems strange to repair a car thats worth less than repair costs :dk:
 
No it wasn't a Toyota.
 
It sounds like he should maybe consider hanging up his driving gloves and get an account with a local cab firm instead.

Maybe he should hang up his driving gloves for good, and find a comfy chair somewhere quiet for a nice sit down and a little snooze.
 
Maybe he should hang up his driving gloves for good, and find a comfy chair somewhere quiet for a nice sit down and a little snooze.

And leave all the skillful driving to the youngsters with their hats on back to front?
 
When I was 20ish I almost got killed by an old guy in an auto Daimler (not his car) when he meant to brake but instead floored the throttle.

It was at the Esso petrol station opposite Machester Apollo Theatre.

I somehow managed to leap into the air and the car hit me with the A pillar (I think) before smashing through the wall and aluminium shop front, finally coming to rest inside the shop itself.

If the car had not made such a roar and squeal as it hurtled towards me I doubt I would have had any chance of escaping.

I remember landing and running at full pelt away from the scene.

A guy at the petrol station ran after me and caught me a few hundred yards away. I could hardly walk back - my legs were a real mess and I had managed to take flight in shock and fear.

Had I not managed to rise above bonnet height I would have been crushed to death.

I bought my first brand new television (ITT with teltext) with my compensation of around £900.00 IIRC. :)
 
When i was younger i was at a mates house when his elderly grandad did the same thing ...

Pulled into the driveway , which was a bit of a slope and stood on the gas instead of the brake. We were standing in the porch at the time , and ran like hell back up the hallway ....

The car completely demolished the porch and came to rest in the hallway , by the bottom of the stairs.

They had to move out for ages as there was structural damage to the house , God knows what it cost to fix. He stopped driving after that.
 
As a kid, an elderly neighbour of ours had a Mini with an auto box. She started it in drive and shot along the pavement, jamming the car between her garden wall and a lamp post. She was trapped briefly until some muscle arrived to push the car backwards and on to the road. She wasn't hurt, and fortunately gave up driving soon after.
 

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