21 January 2024 , 19:36
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Road manners and potholes are the worst they have ever been, according to a 100-year-old man who has been driving for 87 years.
Eric Dixon still proudly motors around in his Kia Picanto – and has no intention of stopping despite the declining manners of drivers. He got his first job behind the wheel of a three-tonne lorry after leaving school aged just 13. Since then Eric, from Canterbury, Kent, has driven every vehicle – from motorcycles to double-decker buses.
Asked how the roads have changed over the decades, the centenarian they are worse than ever. He said: “There was always plenty of courtesy and it was one thing that was drilled into me when I was learning to drive. There are no manners today. Canterbury has got busier and it will get worse. Potholes are the worst they have ever been.”
Eric with his Kia (KMG / SWNS)The average age at which people give up driving is 75, but Eric insists there is nothing he did in his 60s which he can’t do now. He passed his driving test on his 17th birthday, four years into his lorry driver job.
Passing a government test to find out for sure that he was fine to still be on the roads with flying colours in 2017, the only time he has had points on his licence was in the 1940s – for parking on zig-zag lines in London.
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Eric still has a clean bill of health and lives independently without carers. “I am not on any medication,” he said. “I lived on bags of fruit and veg.”