Grandma Chooses To Be a Terror Behind the Wheel
Dear Abby | July 23rd, 2025 | Letter 2 of 2
DEAR ABBY: My grandmother and I are very close. She is 83 and super independent. She loves keeping busy and is always running around town. I need your advice on how to get through to her. She has always driven like a cowboy. She speeds and is impatient on the road. If she sees someone jaywalking, she'll speed up to scare them, as she puts it. It's dangerous and worrisome. I have told her many times that she's driving dangerously, but her reply is that she's never gotten into an accident, so why would she now? Her agility and reflexes are declining as she's aging, and I'm scared she will hurt someone or herself if she keeps driving this way. How can I get her to take seriously this plea to drive more safely? -- SCARED IN CANADA.
DEAR SCARED: In some jurisdictions in the United States, a driver could be charged with an attempted vehicular assault even if the intent was to scare a pedestrian. Consult an attorney familiar with the vehicle codes in Canada and ask if this is also true there. Because her judgment is so poor, your aggressively driving grandmother should not be behind the wheel. Whether she is willing to admit it or not, at 83 her reaction time has slowed down. What she fails to take into consideration is that not all pedestrians react the same when a car barrels toward them. While some might jump out of the way, others may freeze and be badly injured or killed.
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