I was on a rural ‘A’ road the other morning. I was in a ‘National Speed Limit’ zone, so 60
was the maximum speed.
I found myself about the 20th car down in a moving
queue, travelling at 40mph. I could not
see what vehicle was holding everyone up.
I then saw some really dodgy overtakes in places that were downright
dangerous, until eventually, and I do mean ‘eventually’, it was my turn. It turned out the offending vehicle was
being driven by a lady of I would guess 65yrs.
As I passed her, her hands were gripped tightly on the steering wheel,
and her eyes rigidly fixed ahead of her – she did not appear to me to be in any
way comfortable. She had her fog lights on for some bizarre reason which was completely lost on me.
So what I’d expect to happen would be with time, I’d gently
pull away from this lady, but actually quite the opposite happened. It took me a few minutes to realise what was
happening.
As I entered a village in a 30 I noticed that she was
catching up on me! In other words, she
was sticking at 40! So not content with
creating a major hazard in the nationals, she was now speeding 10mph over a 30
limit! And she carried this on through
half a dozen villages.
However, it is not quite so simple as that. On the 2-3 occasions when one of the villages
had a speed camera, I noticed she was
actually reducing down to 30 which personally I thought was a bit of an ‘aggravating
factor’ – it threw a little weight on the severity of the problem, as it
effectively meant that she was intentionally speeding in the 30’s.
I appreciate it’s very easy to put this down to ‘old age’
and just let it be, but I tell you, this is dangerous stuff going on here. I’ve been offering ‘refresher’ training
sessions for precisely this kind of person for the last 3 years at £14 per
hour. Unsurprisingly, in her blissful
ignorance she wont even see the need to change her driving habit, but I must
say I’m surprised I’ve not had any calls from concerned and caring siblings/children/grandchildren.
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