News from Britain seem to be confirming what South Park has been saying for years now: the elderly are plotting against the young and their weapons of choice are cars.
The TV show aired an episode back in 2008 called Grey Dawn where they compare older drivers to zombies, mocking both the Dawn of the Dead film and the hysteria that took over the US back then concerning the right to drive of older citizens. The debate is still quite heated and it will probably never completely die out.
While funny in the way SP presented it, the problem is quite real with a lot of older drivers causing a large amount of accidents in the states around 5 or 6 years ago. In the meantime, the focus has shifted towards the other extreme, the younger/teen drivers that are now endangering us with their non-stop texting. Either way, what happened this weekend in the UK instantly reminded us of the aforementioned South Park episode.
The Daily Mirror reports that a 73-year old pensioner, behind the wheel of his BMW E39 5 Series drove no less than 8 miles (13 km) on the wrong side of a highway, without a clue of what he was doing last weekend.
Apparently, one motorist had a dashboard camera installed and managed to record the ‘daredevil’s’ deed, sharing with the world through Youtube and listening to him describe the event is rather interesting about what was the state of mind of everyone on A23 that morning:
“I drive a powerful car but I am so glad I was only doing the regulation 70 miles per hour at the time - it could have been nasty. At first I thought there had been an accident and the car was stationary and pointing in the wrong direction. But then I realized it was actually pottering along at around 30 or 40mph. Luckily, there was a space between the two vans I was overtaking and I managed to slide between the two,” Paul Germaine said.
According to reports from the Island, the pensioner only stopped when the police showed up and forced him to. Otherwise, God knows where he might’ve ended up. Furthermore, one unlucky driver hit a telegraph pole after he tried to avoid the incoming BMW. Fortunately, he wasn’t injured.
After the 73-year old was pulled over, the Essex Police took him straight to the hospital to have him checked out and see whether there was a medical explanation for what had just happened. While we’re waiting for the results, let’s check out the video of the real-life event and an excerpt from the Grey Dawn episode.
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