How do you know when it is time to give up driving?

[no_hypocrisy]

31. My father at almost 91 caused his own death by driving when he shouldn't have been.

We couldn't get him to stop. Just the opposite. He'd drive to Florida, stay one day, and drive back to Jersey. He'd drive to the middle of Pennsylvania for a restaurant that had "amazing" liver and onions. Stuff like that. I warnede him with one big accident, he'd lose the house he lived in for the past half century. He didn't believe it would happen.

His car had no airbags. His foot slipped off the brake and onto the accelerator. He rear-ended a van at a gas station. He totaled his car. He refused medical attention when offered. Got three tickets.

One week later, he complained that he had a severe back ache. (Not to me, to a neighbor)

While the neighbor went to get a heating pad at a drugstore, my father suffered a massive heart attack and managed to dial 9-1-1. It was too late.

The Point: Through a series of events, my father rear-ended a van and his chest hit the steering wheel or column and did not go to get medical help. Matter of fact, my siblings and I didn't know about this accident until we were in the ER and the neighbor told us. (Dad had several "fender-benders" and hid them from us.)

Because his chest suffered a trauma, his aorta became partially detached (aortic dissection/John Ritter died of this) and he bled slowly for a week and one of the common symptoms is a debilitating back ache.

And my father didn't understand how serious his condition was. But at age 91, he was in denial about several things.

Now for the punchline. The state DMV sent a letter to him this week, advising him that his driving privileges are about to be suspended because of the accident.