[Private_collector]

I have heard that the fellow who drowned in flood waters in Glenwood was 82 y.o. with an invalid wife who he was sole carer for. He died returning from the roadhouse, where he had bought the daily paper. A witness said the car BARELY made it through the rapidly rising waters on the way to the shop, and of course, it didn't make it through on return journey.

I feel sorry for the guy, his wife, witnesses and the local bloke that got into the flood water to try & rescue him. I'm about to cause a rumble with this next statement. At his time of life, the body has many limitations, so does the brain. Reflexes slow, alertness dulls, cognitive abilities become questionable etc.. The only one that doesn't seem to be aware is the individual themselves.

I'm not saying the man that drowned was not of sound mind or body. I didn't know him at all, BUT I did see my own Father, who had once been a TREMENDOUS driver with exceptional reflexes and intuition, slowly turn into a driver of such poor abilities (physical & decision making) that I wouldn't allow my family to drive in his car.

Some believe that as we were once, so we shall always be. Driving abilities stands out as a classic example of this. Bet you have heard a version of the old phrase "i've been driving for XX years & i've never had an accident/ticket"!

Don't think i'm dumping crap on a dead man, cause i'm not, but it was in hindsight a very bad decision.

Here's an amusing & true story:

About a year ago, we had steady rain for many days, which reactivated either a spring or raised water table beneath a major access road in/out of Glenwood. Most people used this road to go south towards Gympie. Over several days, the road surface got worse and worse, until the bitumin started to buckle badly and breakup. Council erected signs. Firstly "Rough Surface", and later this was replaced with baricades and "Road Closed". By this time the road had turned to absolute mush! Despite the closure signs, some half-wits went around them and carried on through the slop. This just accelerated the deterioration.

An elderly couple I know, who lived nearest to the closed road, would get a steady stream of drivers wandering up their driveway (all hours of day & night) asking a tow for the inevitable bogged vehicle.

For a while, the farmer (in his mid 80s) would gather ropes in his old Land Rover and go to the rescue. As I said, this happened only for a while. After several days of coming to the rescue, he had enough of these stupid idiots. About that time, so he later told me, a guy came swaggering up his driveway & said "I don't suppose you could give me a tow, could ya?" The farmer agreed with him, and said 'NO, I don't suppose I could. You got yourself into that situation by ignoring a blocked road, so get yourself out!' For that he got abused by a fool, who lets face it, would best be considered a candidate for Natural Selection. The car sat in the mush for two days. It was already down beyond the axles when it got bogged and only got deeper in the next 48hrs. Driver got a ticking off by the council and a fine was threatened but not issued. The positive thing was that with that vehicle stuck, no other cars could try going through and cause further disruption for the old farmer.

I believe the VAST majority of those ignoring the road closed signs were considered to be in their 30s to 50s! There is a special kind of stupidity reserved for middle aged men. One last thing, NO WOMEN attempted to get through. At least none that asked the farmer for asistance!