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Age-impaired drivers: Discussing the undiscussable after being creamed today by a near-90-something

Does it ever cross your mind while you are out driving and thinking — likely doing more thinking than driving — that some day you will have to stop driving?

Having “the talk” with loved ones when one is too old drive is the big taboo of discussions nowadays, or at least that is how it seems to me. I hear more people contemplating their deaths and what to do with their remains than considering when they’ll no longer be behind the wheel. Losing the ability to drive — physically or legally — represents cessation of mobility, independence and even the sense of self for many.

I bring this up because I was in a traffic accident today in which the car I was driving was struck by a large SUV driven by a woman who is or is very close to 90 years old. Oh I’m okay. Thanks for asking. I was aching a bit and may be a bit stove up in the morning. I truly don’t want to sound self-important but I believe my evasive action at the wheel kept things from being much more serious than they were.

This morning I was driving my “company” car up to a busy intersection adjacent to Interstate 10. I was on the freeway service road as it was necessary to enter I-10 and head back home. I pulled up to the cross street, which is actually two state highways into one, and stopped at the red light. The three lanes were thus: 1) The inside lane was for left turns only. 2) The middle lane was for turning left or going forward. 3) The outside lane was for going forward only. Well, one might make a right turn after stopping, but that’s beside the point.

I was in the middle lane waiting to go forward. Colin Cowherd’s sport show was on the radio. I was thinking about work things. As the light turned green, life became a blur as well as a split-second adrenalin rush. I felt the wallop of colliding metal, and it seemed I was a mass of hands wheeling that Chevy anywhere it needed to go as long as it wasn’t into the path of another car. Then the big SUV was headed off into the distance as were all the other cars. No one stopped as I pulled into the nearby convenience store parking lot. Not a soul inquired as to how I was doing. Such Good Samaritans.

With hands shaking even more than they normally do, I called 9-1-1. The operator seemed irritated I had called and told me that where I was located was the city’s jurisdiction, not the county’s. “Well, excuuuuuse me!,” I wished I had said.  But I just said “Whatever.”

Having a fender-bender in the company car is not a simple incident when you work for the folks I do. I had to pull out forms and call my supervisor and prepare for the barrage of questions to which I didn’t yet know the answers.

Then, perhaps the most galling portion of the entire saga unfolded. Along came the runaway SUV, driven by a sweet, little old almost  90-something lady and her self-righteous almost equally aged passenger. Both elderly ladies began barraging me with their insistence that I was at fault. They were in a turning lane and I went straight, said the indignant old ladies.

“No, wait,” I said. I knew that couldn’t be right. But they had a witness, they said. Even showed me a name written down. Danged old women had me believing for a moment that maybe I was wrong, that I had caused the accident. Then the passenger began eying my license plate. Seems to be a lot of that going on lately. She asked who I worked for and I told her, in broad terms until she asked specifics. I got about as specific as I could without being specific.

Finally, thank Heavens, the nice policeman came. I had initially reported that the driver of the other vehicle left the scene, which can be a serious problem in some instances. I told the officer the vehicle that struck me had indeed returned. The two old ladies then began on their stories of how the driver was making a left turn from the outside lane when I drove straight and struck her SUV, which remarkably didn’t leave any visible damage on the big vehicle. My company car has a right rear passenger door that is noticeably crumpled. It also will not open. Upon telling their side of the story I could see a glint of confusion and humor in the police officer’s eyes. The officer promptly told the ladies that the driver of the vehicle in which they were riding was in the wrong.

As the officer continued to gather information the driver was sweet and told how she had drove on a country road for years that is now filling up with all manner of trailer-trash traffic. But her friend did remark to me that: “You really should have seen us turning.”

The officer gave the driver of the other car no ticket although he did assign the fault to her. The officer told me that he didn’t want to give her a ticket because he “hated to see her lose her license.” I would likewise hate to see her license yanked. But, that could have been a serious accident and I am uncertain as to the woman’s judgment after apparently believing that she could turn left across traffic from clear across the highway. I have no idea whether the other driver’s insurance company will be so forgiving. It could be that family members might need to have that “talk” with their mother, grandmother, auntie and so forth.

Consider the following statistics from the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, nothing alarming, nothing yet, but certainly something to catch one’s eyes:

 “In 2008, 13 percent of the total U.S. resident population (34 million) were people age 65 and older. There were 31 million older licensed drivers in 2007 — an 19-percent increase from 1997. In contrast, the total number of licensed drivers increased by only 13 percent from 1997 to 2007. Older drivers made up 15 percent of all licensed drivers in 2007, compared with 14 percent in 1997.

 “In 2008, 183,000 older individuals were injured in traffic crashes, accounting for 8 percent of all the people injured in traffic crashes during the year. These older individuals made up 15 percent of all traffic fatalities, 14 percent of all vehicle occupant fatalities, and 18 percent of all pedestrian fatalities.”

I am still here and have not yet had to seek medical care from today’s fender-bender. I have neck and back pain plus a painful wrist from my battle with power steering. But hopefully I will be okey-dokey and my ailments will be limited to an ache-plus body, that being a few more aches than is normal these days. And all in all, the totality of what happened has made me think about that time which could come that I would have to give up my keys to the highway. It is not a pleasant thought although neither is the thought of what cost an age-impaired judgment might bring.

 

 

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Veterans may have new way to fight sleep apnea

Almost 10 years have passed since I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. I found out that news — something I had suspected for some time — at a joint Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense Sleep Lab at the Olin E. Teague VA Hospital in Temple, Texas. I was prescribed a CPAP, for Continued Positive Airway Pressure, machine.

CPAPs, especially older ones, can be kind of a pain in the bumski. But for the various maladies the machines can help prevent they are pretty much worth the trouble. VA patients may now have the opportunity for a simpler, much lighter and less complicated device to treat sleep apnea.

A company called Ventus medical has entered into a multi-year contract with the VA for the use of Provent® Sleep Apnea Therapy, a small, non-invasive nasal device for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. More than 4 million veterans suffer from sleep apnea. A 61 percent increase in diagnoses have been seen for veterans between 2008-2010 due to respiratory-causing problems from dust in Iraq and Afghanistan. A press release from the company explains how this treatment works:

 “Provent Therapy utilizes nasal expiratory positive airway pressure (EPAP) to keep a patient’s airway open during. It incorporates a novel MicroValve design that is placed over the nostrils and secured with hypoallergenic adhesive. During inhalation, the valve opens allowing nearly unobstructed airflow. During exhalation, the valve closes, limiting airflow through small openings, which increases expiratory pressure and keeps the airway open, preventing disruption in breathing.”

The CPAP has been with me for most of the time since I was diagnosed. I say most of the time, I have never taken it camping with me because the times I went camping I didn’t have the means to plug my machine into my truck for electricity. I have the means now but haven’t been camping in awhile. Taking the machine along, especially using air travel, can also be a hassle. The machine isn’t all that rugged so it is carry-on luggage. In the first days of the TSA, traveling with a CPAP wasn’t all that difficult. One might just place the machine inside its bag on the conveyer belt. Then the TSA began requiring the machines be taken out and put on top of the carrying bag. Now they security folks want you to take the guts of the machine off of the humidifier so it can be X-rayed.

Breathing from a machine which may or may not make a little noise, not to mention wearing a nasal or full nasal-mouth mask at night, also isn’t the sexiest look for the bedroom. That is unless, perhaps, you are pretending to be a fighter pilot. I’m just guessing here. I have no first-hand knowledge though.

The Provent Therapy definitely has the promise of unburdening yourself with some 10-to-20 pounds of machine, wires and tubes. It might not be for everyone, however.

I was interested in Provent so I sent an e-mail last night to an address I got through the company’s Web site. My main concern is that often during the night my nasal passages are often stopped up for a great deal of time. Since the device fits under your nose, yes, that is it, I wondered if it would do its job on me. A company representative called me this afternoon. The nice lady said that because of the way the Provent Therapy works, it might not be effective for someone suffering from blocked nasal passages.

The representative suggested I ask my doctor about use of Provent Therapy and perhaps asking for some kind of medicine to dry up my nasal passages. The last thing I want right now are any more meds. Other than an occasional Benedryl, I haven’t used any type of allergy medicine since I left Central Texas and its hellish “cedar fever.” So I kind of doubt it is worth the trouble of asking my doctor for the device.

Provent Therapy might be worthwhile for other veterans though. I am not endorsing it, but if you want to check it out, read the Web information and ask your VA doc about. For more information about the product itself, you can call toll-free 1-888-757-9355.

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Life at the red light, simply freaking amazing

Check this out.

I am driving east on Calder today and stopped for the light at Lucas. I engaged my signal for a right turn, ready to make a right on red. This, Yuppie, for lack of a better description, stopped in the southbound lane on Lucas. He made about a half turn into the westbound lane on Lucas, adjacent to me, then straightened up and drove south, passing in front of me. Doesn’t sound too bad, right?

The driver — in an SUV — didn’t signal when he was about to turn left. I mouthed some words like “WTF” with a look of puzzlement on my face because he narrowly missed hitting my work car. The guy couldn’t have heard me, of course, since our windows were up. More importantly, he couldn’t  hear me because HE WAS TALKING ON HIS FREAKING CELL PHONE!

Adding insult with no physical injury, the guy FLIPPED ME OFF!

Talk about your gall. There it was. As the departed Richard Pryor might have said: “All unmitigated and s**t.”

Think about this.

The guy was talking on his cell phone and shoots me the finger with the hand that was on the steering wheel. How is that for driver agility?

I didn’t do anything wrong except staying put as one obeying traffic laws might do.

It isn’t like I flipped him off. I just kept my comments to myself.

Yet, Mr. Big Shot unleashes his anger toward me.

It leaves me stunned, astonished, dumbfounded, dumbstruck, flabbergasted, stupefied and so forth.

WTF?

 

 

 

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A curious case of “Pole Dancing”

Note: This was, as is my practice more often than not, edited online. If you read this and said “WTF?” before seeing this note, then that could be one reason. If you read this post after seeing this note and still say “WTF?” well, that’s the way the eight feet go deep.

There are times when something — some thing — appears so quickly and unexpectedly as well as makes so very little sense that one is perhaps too awed to be scared. This explains what happened to me this morning although I do admit to some quick fright.

I was driving from Beaumont to Nederland down the “Three-In-One Highway,” well, it should be called that because it is all U.S. Hwys. 69, 96 and 287 wrapped into one. To make matters more confusing the road veers off to another highway, this one Texas 347 which goes to Nederland, the Port Neches-Groves area and Port Arthur. I decided not to take 347 though and as I was just about to follow the exit signs I noticed electric cables which both ran across the highway and were strung along poles off the roadway were whipping up and down very rapidly. The cross arm of one pole appeared as if it were about to smash the Impala I drive for work as well as pound me in the process. During this whole episode, which may have taken less than 10 seconds, I saw something the size of a baseball but which was unrecognizable flying toward the windshield. I also could hear the UFO bang the car.

Immediately I pulled over after I was clear of the once-dancing pole and figured this must have taken place during a freak windstorm. That was even though I noticed no great amount of wind as I exited the car to see if any damage was sustained. There was no damage luckily. I looked back at the pole and saw the top half of it leaning at what I estimated was about a 25-degree angle toward the highway.

I figured I should call someone and let them know a pole was leaning toward the roadway and that the entire bunch of wires looked as if they might have fallen on me had I not stomped the gas pedal. First I called the police. This was not the 9-1-1 line but the office number and that turned out to be a colossally-poor exercise in communication.

The lady at the police station told me there had just been a wreck where I was. An 18-wheeler had hit an electric pole and the traffic was shut down, the police department person said. Well, not quite. It wasn’t shut down where I was and in the lanes where the “Leaning Tower of Electric Shock” bowed its crown dangerously toward some driver headed toward his or her shifts at one of the many prisons or refineries located just to the south of where I sat. I couldn’t make the police person understand that the pole could come off onto a car or the highway and dragging any number of perhaps hot lines with it.

Luckily, I was after a couple of tries, able to make the person with whom I spoke at Entergy-Texas — the local power company — understand the situation. They said someone would check it out. Since their repair people were probably in the area already, or at least on their way, I figured that someone would do something at some time. I also figured out that the bizarre show I experienced had something to do with the wreck on the other side of the highway, but which I could not see for myself. Always with the weird things I see!

On my return trip, the highway was backed up just north of Nederland as well as a good five miles from where the big wreck happened and the highway was likewise closed down just before an exit for a Farm to Market road near a cluster of prisons.

It turns out the wreck and, I have to suppose, the dancing utility pole on my side of the highway happened when a big truck carrying a large portable office building wrecked and took out six electric poles. That was the explanation of the wreck given by local TV station KFDM. Entergy-Texas said on their Web site that 169 customers in the area were without power and that electric service might not be restored until 10 p.m. this evening. The highways had been reopened but were about to be closed once again on both sides of Cardinal Drive between Martin Luther King Parkway and Hwy. 347. This information courtesy of a Beaumont Police Department press release. If traveling, bring your patience with you or else a designated driver.

The mystery of the great Southeast Texas “Pole Dancing” Festival is solved. I feel much better. Especially so since I am no longer on the highway or underneath any electrical lines.

 

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A victory for sanity in the Texas Lege: The special session ends

Hide your grandma and your children, at least when going to the airport in Texas. That’s right. It’s going to be “Grope City.”

That is what Republican Texas lawmakers might have you believe as a so-called “pat-down bill” failed to pass in the state House after a called session of the Legislature ended today. Possible GOP presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick “Good Hair” Perry had considered the bill to criminalize what Tea Party types see as intrusive “groping” of passengers subject to search in the state’s airports as a priority. However, that anti-federal government proposal and a bill to prevent “Sanctuary Cities” for illegal immigrants – both Perry priorities — died in the Texas House.

“Although I am disappointed lawmakers did not finalize legislation that would have banned sanctuary cities, I commend the Legislature’s work to pass measures that further strengthen our legal system through loser pays lawsuit reform, uphold the integrity of the ballot box by requiring voters to present photo ID at polling places, protect unborn life by requiring an ultrasound before an abortion, strengthen private property rights, and increase penalties for individuals who participate in human trafficking,” Goodhair said in a news release. “And although the airport pat-down bill did not pass, it did initiate a public discussion and some changes in airport security procedures.”

The long-winded Perry statement highlighted what he considered accomplishments during this year’s biennial session and subsequent special session. Not touted by Perry is the damage done by his insistence the state’s nearly $6 billion reserve, or “Rainy Day Fund,” remains in tact while Texas teachers see massive job cuts. In fact, Perry bragged on the healthy fund in New York City while sticking his foot in the water for a presidential run.

“New York City??? Get a rope.” (Quoting an old Pace Picante Sauce commercial here. No need report me to the Secret Service or the Perry Texas DPS Guard Detail.)

Despite the efforts of Perry and the goofballs in the Texas Legislature, at least a bill that might have disrupted air travel and could have put in jeopardy the federal government as well as its efforts to keep the flying public safe went down in flames. Too bad. So sad. Childish yes. Do I give a rat’s rectum? No. I am on vacation.