I parked quite a bit from where I had to do some shopping. This is just a little way to sneak in additional walking for me.

I came out of the shop, looked both ways and was going to cross with 2 other people. A Fed Ex truck came whipping around the corner and almost hit us! So, back onto the sidewalk we hopped. Again, I was ready to brave the crossing when I noticed this big brown box on wheels. It was staring at us. We could hear its diesel breath coming down on us. It was just sitting there glaring at us with its beady headlights. Truly intimidating. Ah Ha! The driver of the beady highlighted, diesel breathing box left. We scooted across. OK. Safe, so I thought. I'll just proceed to walk across the 3 aisles to my car. Nope. Just about run down by one of those automated cart gathers followed quickly by some guy in a wheelchair!

I decided that I won't walk in that part of the parking lot again.

You really need to watch out for those cars driven by the little old ladies who cant see over the steering wheel. Aw heck, sometimes I cant see over the steering wheel-guess they're not all little old ladies.

Be afraid, be very afraid! I live it the land of the retired....white poofs of hair barely peeping over the steering wheels of Lincoln Town cars that straddle the white lane markers. The scariest time to be on the road is around 6-7 PM (when the early bird diners are on their way home after eating and having a cocktail).

mare--your lunch sounded like a nightmare!

I almost got hit by a car today too! I was trying to walk, in the crosswalk, across our parking lot of our apartment complex, where the speed limit is about 5 mph... and here comes some punk going about 40, whipped around the corner, and if I hadn't jumped out of the way, I would have been creamed. I was so angry I flipped him off.
I should have gotten his plate numbers and complained to the apartment management.
The best part is the little jerk just laughed at me. I'm so glad he thought it was funny. I swear sometimes I feel like maybe I should let one of them hit me... If I were elderly or a child or just not looking I would be injured severely.
GRRRR!

On a side note, you can complain to FedEx, they track their drivers and will know who was where and when and that driver can get a talking to. We've had to do this with another service truck company when they almost creamed us.

lol Sounds like it was a big risk just trying to get where you want to go!!!

You should complain anyway! If it's happened to you, it's probably happened to others. I'm glad you got out of the way. Don't you wish you'd had a camera phone with you?

Camera phone... baseball bat... whichever was closest at hand.

I know I'm not the only one, and it scares me because there are a lot of little kids in this complex running around... and right next door is a convalescent home and across the street is a retirement home.

You should try getting in the backseat of one of those Town cars. We did. My aunt(in-law) was in her 80s, behind the wheel, and I think my husband ended up peeing his pants. She turned down the wrong way on the street (we just saw a bunch of headlights coming straight for us), she nearly ran over FIL as he was getting out of the car after she took so long fiddling with the garage opener then jammed down the gas to pull into the garage at the speed of light, she turned into the exit of the retirement home instead of the entrance (the guard couldn't keep from grinning), and twice ran off the road and nearly into a ditch. This was all in about 30 minutes of driving. LOL As we left the other aunt's for the evening, she sat in car fiddling with her seatbelt as the other elderly aunt closed the garage. She stares and says "I think that garage door is gonna hit my car....yup, it's gonna hit my car." Beep beep beep! "May! Your door hit my car!" "What?!?" "Your door hit my car." May comes out..."Your door hit my car." "Oh, ok." May goes in, hits the garage door button again. ROFL!

BTW, this was 2002, the Town car was an '88.....with 33,000 miles on it. She grins and says "Another 7,000 miles and it'll be broke in."

elderly people driving can be amusing but also scary!!
I distinctly remember the day Great Grandpa missed his freeway exit, pulled off to the side and proceeded to back up!!! Man everyone peed their pants that day!

LOL Yeah, one of those near ditch experiences was when she tried getting on the freeway. She turned waaaaaay to wide, past the freeway entrance, through the grass, nearly into the trees, and back into the freeway ramp.

great story, almostheaven! I can relate!

These stories scare me especially when I think about the news stories of late, elderly people mixing up the brake and the gas and killing people. We had an elderly man here in Detroit do that and he ran a red light. That scared him because he saw a police car near the intersection so he really took off. Mind you the police car wasn't even chasing him. He lost control of the SUV, ran up on the sidewalk in front of the Social Security office and hit two women - one in her 30s that was able to get mostly out the way and another one who was 60+ that didn't move in time. The impact severed her head and one arm. Her daughter was pulling up to the building to pick up her mother and saw her mothers body ripped apart. On top of all this, the Social Security office is housed right next door to a huge athletic field where 5 cheer teams and 5 football teams were arriving for practice. The guy wasn't hurt at all but was very shaken up. I felt bad for him too but was very angry that his family allowed him to still drive, especially on such a busy street during afternoon rush hour.

They have to have someone there who will step in. And I'll tell ya...there's a cost that comes with it.

Hubby got a letter from the family doc that his mother and father were both suffering from differing forms of dementia, as well as his father's pernicious anemia and diabetes. Another doctor later ruled that the anemia caused a lack of blood flow to the brain which is why he spaced out and forgot where he lived. Armed with the letter, hubby tried to get FIL to allow him to drive him where he needed. FIL got extremely angry (fighting angry). It was a VERY messy court battle in the end. But what started it? Hubby sent that letter to the DMV when FIL REFUSED to allow ANYONE to take away his driving privilege. The DMV took away his driving privilege. He drove anyway. The neighbors called the cops whenever he left the house. The cops never stopped him. The last we knew, he'd totalled a brand new car at some point.