How old is too old to be driving?

And with the lines in many places (in non virus times anyway) as long as they are how long do you think they would be if everyone had to retest every 5 years, or even 10 yrs. Crazy idea.

 

A few years ago I had to tell one of our drivers that it was time to retire. He was in his seventies and not only was he one of the best we had he was one of the best I've ever seen. This was a guy who was quiet and that everybody liked and who'd help anybody with anything.
He'd started making little mistakes, nothing serious, and for a long time everybody covered for him. The mistakes started escalating, like forgetting to pull the fuel nozzle out of the truck tank not just once but several times in a month. On more than one occasion he'd load a dozer or an excavator on the lowbed and forget to completely tie it down. One time he went over seventy miles on I-5 with a D-6 and forgot to put on any rigging at all. One of our other trucks spotted it, got him pulled over, and tied it down. He dumped two dozers on their side loading them over the back. He scalped a new set of trailer tires with a grader and then warped the turntable tying down across it.
It got so the other guys couldn't cover for him any more so we tried to keep him on the simpler stuff like dirt hauling. The clincher came when he called me from a town about fifty miles away, a place he'd been to a thousand times, and told me he wasn't sure how to find his way back to the yard. I had the shop guy take me to him and rode with him back to the yard. We talked on the way.
He knew he was slipping and it bothered him more than anybody had realized. He finally said..."Terry, why don't you just tell me that it's time to retire 'cause I'll never be able to make myself leave otherwise". So I did.
He's still around, getting home care for the early stages of dementia, but otherwise feeling fine. I took him some salmon and deer meat last week and spent a couple of hours talking about the old days. He remembers me 'cause we worked together for thirty years but he doesn't know most people.
One thing he said before I left was "Terry, you did good to get me off the road" and he had tears in his eyes when he said it.
The lesson here is if you have an old driver that's losing it, do them and everybody else a favor and get him off the road. You won't like doing it but you'll be glad you did.

 

first sentence in your 2nd paragraph......That's exactly what I said in my post. You make a mistake usually a small one that you have never made before. And you stop and think, is it time to head for the rocking chair ?