Jeremy Clarke Jeremy Clarke

A dog’s life

One of the main drawbacks to living on the south Devon coast is the number of drivers on the road who are over 80. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be there.

issue 21 July 2007

One of the main drawbacks to living on the south Devon coast is the number of drivers on the road who are over 80. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be there.

One of the main drawbacks to living on the south Devon coast is the number of drivers on the road who are over 80. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be there. I just wish they’d speed up a bit. The lanes around here are narrow and winding. Overtaking opportunities are rare. Get stuck behind a 90-year-old creeping along at 15 miles an hour in the latest Vauxhall Vectra, and if you aren’t prepared to overtake on a blind bend then there’s not a lot you can do about it other than perform yogic breathing exercises to try to suppress the urge to shunt their car into the hedge, leap out and repeatedly get a knife into them. Most of the road accidents in this part of Devon, I’d guess, are caused either by bizarre malfunctions of these elderly drivers’ brains, or by frustrated drivers attempting dangerous manoeuvres to try to overtake them.

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