Elderly couple takes wrong turn, ends up 400 miles from destination
WOODBURN, Ore. - An elderly couple who left home on what was supposed to be a 10-minute drive to a family member's house ended up 400 miles away and stranded once their car ran out of gas.
The couple - an 85-year-old man and his 83-year-old wife - were reported missing out of Redding, California, on Christmas Eve.
A woman told police there that her stepfather had picked up his wife from a care facility and the two were supposed to drive to a family's home for Christmas Eve dinner. But they never arrived.
On Christmas morning, around 6:30 a.m., the Oregon State Police responded to a report of a stalled vehicle with an elderly couple inside on Interstate 5 near Woodburn.
By the time officers arrived, someone had pushed the couple's car off the highway onto the right shoulder to get them out of traffic.
The couple appeared to be very confused, according to the Oregon State Police, and were transported by ambulance to a local hospital to get checked out.
Family members in California picked up the couple and brought them back to Redding. The family said the two are doing better now.
Glad they are safe; my dad is 89 and his 'lady-love' is 87. Albeit I would be worried, I'd be more prone to think that it was their Christmas get-away road trip. They have always loved their road trips. Good for them! More power to them!
OBTW, my dad is totally lucent and recently passed a DMV driver's test for his driving abilities. Just because you are (what is considered) 'old' doesn't mean that you are incompetent.
After the first couple hours of a 10 minute journey go by, it may be time to give in and ask for directions.
Glad they are safe. Taking the license won't do a thing...you have to take the keys/car.
 @jasmin10 Meaning they are so confused they will even drive without a licence? Isn't that a felony?
First thing is to revoke their drivers licence.Â
Someone didn't get a Garmin!
Sounds like they need to be together in the care facility. And this is a lucky ending - how m any times do we read of a couple or a single person, aged, confused, (not even all that elderly!) dying when they drive that car somewhere no one finds it? Â Had a lady once stop to ask me directions to a place that was 7 blocks from her house. Â She, on the other hand, had driven across the entire Minneapolis Metro and was about 40 miles from where she should have been. Â She was on her way to see her doctor at a memory treatment clinic; the lady who usually drove her was busy. Â That could have been a disaster.
Thank goodness this story has a happy ending.
So many like this don't.
ooooo. Sorry to hear they had so much trouble. But SOOO HAPPY they are safe and found !!
Left for X-mas eve dinner, found X-mas night..........20 + hours and 400 miles, thank god they are alive!!!!!
I wonder what kind of car they drove - it gets good gas mileage!
When (and if) we get that old, I will pick my wife up for a final road trip! Glad they are all right, and am glad they will have the memory of hanging out together (alone with eachother) one more time.
@iamtroglodite I agree with you most whole-heartedly. That's how I see it. Am glad that they are safe and had those hours together.
 @iamtroglodite Around the world in 80 days road trip!
Ok...I see where someone did call...but apparently not soon enough. They still managed to drive 400 miles...wonder when that person called.
And the wife's care facility didn't think to call family members to confirm this was expected? That their children knew dad was picking mom up? And when they didn't arrive for Christmas dinner...the family member they were going to didn't think to call the care facility and then police??? They didn't have to drive 400 miles out of their way had someone thought to follow-up with them. Family members and the facility sure dropped the ball.
To children of this elderly couple, get your paents' licenses away for good!  Glad that they were okay and not hurt! Adult children, you really need to watch your parents closely everytime they go out of the house and get in their cars to go somewhere. I am watching my dad closely everytime he drives somewhere period.  Good luck to this elderly couple.
We need to take this seriously!
Maybe they were abducted by Aliens and have no memory of the time they lost..
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Regardless, it will be a Christmas to talk about for years
they drove 400 miles when expecting to go a ten minute drive...... Clearly time to yank the licenses.
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Who thought it was a good idea for the old boy to continue to drive.. Someone dropped the ball here.. Lucky for everyone involved it turned out ok..
recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...
@Phuzz U-turn if possible!
Yes, it is time to park the car, and have family members help you get around. That is quite a long drive...
Sad really, and lucky at the same time.
Sad that no one figured out before hand they needed help. Lucky they stayed on I-5 and some concerned citizen called in and also helped them out
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 Last I heard taking long drives was not a criminal offense. If you don't want to see them on the road, stay off it.
It is a safety issue actually. Do you want one of your family doing this? Or perhaps having an accident, or making the wrong turn up in the mountains...
@Just Lookin Notlikehe gotin a wreck. He got lost. He probably drives safely every day to see his wife at the care facility and you would want to take that away.
pswaterspirit
Yes, he got lost, what would have happened if he had taken a wrong turn and headed up into the mountain areas? No cell service in a lot of spots. Did they have a cell phone just in case?If they ran out of gas on a mountain road, or even coast road, in the middle of nowhere...then what?
It is time to look at reality. Yes, he may be the best driver close to home, but it is perhaps time for the family to step up and help.
What would you be saying if he had a wreck? They were very lucky indeed. Traveling 400 miles, roughly 8 hours of driving, through snow...very very lucky. I would want to take it away yes, for their safety, then take turns with family members to make sure they got to where they needed to go.
@pswaterspirit   At some point, the driving privelege has to go, and when someonedrives for 4 hours to get to a destination only 10 minutes away, something is wrong!
Ban Old!
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Oh wait this isn't Logan's Run (yet).
The fact that you know about Logan's Run... I suspect would qualify you for a blinking gem.
I have been a runner for more years than not!
I think this should be called their last drive to nowhere! We told my great aunt to stop driving when she was about this age and it was because we noticed dents, scrapes, paint, and other cosmetic problems with her car...evidently she was hitting stuff all around town!
This is just funny, But you got to be out of it when a 10 minute drive turn into a 400 mile drive and you are out of gas.
Betcha it wouldn't be funny if it was your loved ones !!!
 @Rob C 503Â
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My loved one stopped driving when they knew it was not safe any more. Even they are getting a good laugh out of this one.
 @Rob C 503  @dkgiovencoÂ
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I am, they came out just fine and hopefully learned a lesson.
@dkgiovenco .......not everyone comes to that point or are willing to give up their independence. Enjoy the good laugh at someone else's expense.
Hopefully they're not seriously gonna let either one of them behind the wheel of a vehicle...right? Oh wait...i'm so confused...this is not the land of common sense..sorry...wait...are we on land? Better drive until we run off the beach into the ocean just to be sure...my lord...get a brain
Don't let the AARP find out. They'll sue on behalf of the couple.
shame on you !
A 10 minute drive? 400 miles? That's a huge variance. Poor little old people. =(
 @Lips I hope they perhaps  had some Christmas cookies and nice cheeses  tucked into their vehicle to  snack on til they were found. I am sure they were seen stopping a one place or another to use the restroom. People that age have to use the restroom frequently. But if no one knew they were lost or confused, no one would have intervened.Â
At least it wasn't their "Final Destination".
Dude...it is TOTALLY OK to stop and ask directions!
deejm2112 Not if he doesn't want his "Man Card" revoked.
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OMG, sounds like a scary experience for these 2 people... I'm glad they're OK, but just based on the info in this story, I'm siding with those who say they shouldn't be driving anymore... there are apparently some major confusion issues here, and it's not safe for them - or others on the road...Â
Time for the family to step in, Margay. We've all been there with aging parents and these guys are showing all the warning signs.
 @Rob C 503 ~ That is for sure, Rob..!  My mom was always a good driver, but she voluntarily quit driving about 2 or 3 years before she passed away (she was in her mid-70s)... her eyesight was failing, and she knew it just wasn't safe anymore...  Â
The couple in this story is just sooo fortunate, because there are so many really b-a-d things that could have happened to them... I hope their family will take some action to get them out from behind the wheel now, so they can enjoy the rest of their lives in relative safety... Â
@whirledworld @margay1 .........been down that road (no pun intended) with both my mother and the in-laws. No picnic is an understatement. But what can help convince them is conveying the thought that they could seriously injure someone, other then themselves. It drove the point home for my family members.
 @margay1  @Rob C 503 My mom voluntarily quit as well, but I ended up earlier with the short straw out of the sibs of taking Dad's car keys away from him after a stroke and the whole way from Portland to the coastal town they lived in he would not  address/speak to me; only convey  verbal messages to my mom to me while we were all in the same vehicle!  He finally got over it some weeks later. My sympathies to all other adult children facing this task.. It is no picnic.