Thursday, November 25, 2010
 Oldest driver - world record set by Verna Truax
 PARKERSBURG, Iowa, USA--Verna Truax, 105 years old, of Parkersburg, stistill hops into her maroon Pontiac Sunbird LE to go to the grocery store or the doctor's office to get her blood pressure checked and recently renewed her driver's license - setting the new world record for the Oldest driver.
   Photo: Verna Truax, 105 years old, of Parkersburg, still drives her own car and recently renewed her driver's license , setting the world record for the
Oldest driver. Photo by: Rick Chase (enlarge photo)

  Born in 1905, Truax began driving Model T's (when they were the dominant vehicle on the road) in the 1920s with no license at all - "We didn't have to have driver's licenses that long ago," she said - and in that entire time she says she's never been in an accident and never had a speeding ticket.

  Until four years ago, younger friends called on her to drive them to doctor's appointments. Truax admits having good days and bad, but most mornings she goes for coffee at a business she and her late husband, Leslie, owned.

  Truax knows that when you're 105, things can go wrong, and besides abiding by the rules of her driver's license, she only takes trips inside city limits. She'd like to travel to Waterloo and Cedar Falls like she used to do in her 80s, but she thinks she'd get too tired.

   The World's Oldest Driver claims her prescription for good health is a teaspoon of cider vinegar and honey in a glass of warm water every morning. "I don't like to keep the pill factories going," Truax says.

   Apparently, the concoction works: the centenarian walks without a cane and has no signs of arthritis. Her busy days aren't consistent with her years. "When the rhubarb is coming up, I will be planting the vegetable garden."

   The Oldest Driver in The World knows people will take one look at her, or hear how old she is, and assume she shouldn't be behind the wheel of a vehicle. Sometimes, she believes them.

   "I worried about that more than anybody else," she admitted. She does use a walker or a cane, mostly to keep her balance, but the only restrictions on the back of Truax's Iowa driver's license are that she must wear her glasses, can't drive at night and she has to be in a vehicle with left and right mirrors.

   "Last time I went to the doctor he said, 'I guess you're all right. You seem to be all right,'" she said, laughing.

   In fact, it's the young people Truax is worried about on the road. "Them cell phones," she lamented. "I think they're the craziest things the kids ever got in their hands."

  Her husband, Leslie, with whom she worked side by side with in electrical and plumbing work, always let her do the driving.
   Her favorite cars were Chevys, and she fondly remembers a Chevy Bel Air, though not the year. "I liked to drive, and like to drive to this day," she said.

   People have to speak a little louder around Truax, but she has no other major health problems - and she attributes that to a concoction of Heinz apple cider vinegar and honey she takes each morning.

   Car stunt driver Dave Ackland set the Guinness world record for driving a car on two wheels through the smallest gap when he drove his Vauxhall Viva on 2 wheels through an opening that was only 67 cm wider than the car was high.

   A blind South African man, Hein Wagner, has earned a spot in the Guinness World Records by driving a high performance Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series at 200 miles per hour on a closed runway at Upington International Airport.

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   Related world records:
  Most attempts to pass driving test - Cha Sa-soon

  Longest traffic jam: 60-mile, 11-day Chinese traffic jam

   Most expensive license plate - Abdulla al Mannaie

    Highest speeding fine - Ferrari Testarossa driver

   Thursday, November 25, 2010