Several years ago, I did an article based on part of a story told by Michael Gartner, former president of NBC News. Personally, I enjoyed it so much I think it’s worth repeating, as we need a little humor in traffic safety.

Gartner tells the following story about his parents. One day when his father was 95 and his mother 88 and still driving, he (the father) said to his son, “Do you want to know the secret of a long life?”

“I guess so,” said Gartner, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

“No left turns,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“No left turns,” he repeated. “Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents (crashes) that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic. As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So, your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn.”

“What?” I said again.

“No left turns,” he said. “Think about it. Three rights are the same as one left, and that’s a lot safer. So, we always make three rights.”

“You’re kidding!” I said, and I turned to my mother for support.

“No,” she said, “your father is right. We make three rights. It works.” But then she added: “Except when your father loses count.”

I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing.

“Loses count?” I asked.

“Yes,” my father admitted, “that sometimes happens. But it’s not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you’re okay again.”

I couldn’t resist. “Do you ever go for 11?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can’t be put off another day or another week.”

My mother was never in an accident (crash), but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999, when she was 90. She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102.

Although this story is comical, there is validity to what Gartner’s father said — that most crashes involving older drivers happen when they turn left at intersections. Locally, David Stewart, the Driver Safety Course instructor for AARP, coaches elderly drivers to consider making three rights at complex intersections rather than to try to make a left turn — especially if the driver must cross two or more lanes of traffic. It doesn’t work in all situations, but it is worth consideration. Hope you enjoyed this story.

It doesn’t work in all situations, but it is worth consideration. Hope you enjoyed this story.