Over 70s to face driving ban...

[FridgeJenga]

if they fail mandatory eye tests.

What's your opinion?
Is 70 too "young", or about right?
Would 75 be a better compromise?
Currently there is no legal age at which you must surrender your driving licence.
Both my father and FIL voluntarily gave up their licences just before they turned 80. My mum at 76, and MIL is still driving at 78, though only very locally.

(Also in the same article, drink driving limits are under discussion to be lowered, in line with Scotland's laws. This one I fully agree with)

Well it took several submissions over the course of a year and the form would not submit without certain info.

I don't want to go into further details as my family know my username and as far as anyone else knows it was probably a neighbour

From my experience of family- older people have lots of bumps - walks, bollards, other cars in car parks - which are never reported, and they don’t drive far and they’re slow so people/other cars can get out of their way.

Okay.... Interesting. Just a number plate? We have to go to an optometrist that decides whether you're allowed to drive with corrections (aka glasses or lenses), without corrections or not at all.

After 75 seniors have to get a medical test every 2nd year to test whether they're still fit to drive. Although there are debates whether somebody's primary care physician wouldn't be biased (in favour of their patient) AFAIK🤔

It makes more sense if everyone can see clearly to drive.

The only testing done by the examiner is “read that number plate over there”. There is little more they can do.

There is no reason why an eye test certificate couldn’t be a requirement of the initial test and each ten year renewal. For everything else the legislation is in place - people are choosing not to use it.

100%.

But I would go further. IMHO driving is not a "right" it is a "privilege" that is available to all of those who meet certain criteria.

I think that we should be much tougher in terms of demanding high standards of driving and driver eyesight / reaction times / spatial awareness / cognitive abilities. We should be much more willing to stop people driving if they are not up to it due to failing health, poor behaviour, or simple lack of competence.

@nomas He is waiting for a DVLA vision test and/or hospital appointment with a specialist not a standard sight test. The DVLA tests are only available at some Specsavers branches so there may well be a wait.

He could stop driving whilst waiting. Lots of people with glaucoma can drive legally.

If the issue had been reaction times I might be more sympathetic but everyone I know over 70 uses specs if they need them. The only people I know who don’t, and should, are middle aged women who don’t want to wear them out of vanity.

So no, I think it’s a pointless and ill thought out move.

I'm 65. I don't have an issue with this proposal. However, I hope that nobody who needs cataract surgery will be expected to wait for so long for it that they have a period when they are unable to drive.

Where are you? In the UK there is no culture of regular medicals for preventative care of the type I’ve had in countries with state backed insurance models. For an HGV/PSV licence you need a medical but not for driving a standard vehicle.

Honestly I’d say everyone driving a vehicle on the road ought to be monitoring their health, not just those over a certain age.

My husband voluntarily gave up his driving licence for 3 years because he was not fit to drive due to a medical condition. It impacted our lives massively and impacted his work as public transport could not get hi to work on time. He didn't apply to a job that was perfect for him and where they approached him due to travel.

But he did it because it was the right thing to do. Driving as PP said, is a privilege, not a right.

If it's the young people who cause the most accidents and the most fatalities, it does argue that they should be given much more training and supervision. Or allowed to drive only when they are older. "Improving out of it" doesn't alter the fact we're talking about deaths, devasted families and a large economic impact.

Although regular tests for everyone are a good idea anyway. The standard of driving is awful.

I think all drivers should have a compulsory eye test every 2 years. Can you imagine how many people are driving who have bad eyesigh. It won't stop people driving as they can get glasses. I had to have glasses for driving when I was 45 from routine test.

Being killed or injured by someone who shouldn't be driving is bloody inconvenient too.
Inconvenient/upheaval because you are unfit to drive. Tough shit, deal with it and plan ahead.

I’m 70 and drive a lot and it would completely change my life if I couldn’t - but I’d rather that than kill myself ot, even worse, somebody else because of my failing eyesight.

Everyone who has a licence should have their eyes tested at regular intervals, longer when younger and shorter when older. Surely it would be simple for the optician to just tick a box on your DVLA record? If you don’t get ticked or your eyesight is deemed too poor then your licence is suspended.

One thing I would do is to ‘discourage’ older people from driving at night. As you age your night vision deteriorates and nothing can be done to improve it. I restrict myself to well known and well lit roads after dark as much as I can.

I have over 50 years of driving experience and a good, well maintained car. I even did a bit of motor sport ‘back in the day’. If I was in charge (!) I’d make attending a very hard hitting ‘speed awareness’ style course an essential element of the driving test.

No one should be able to self certify their own eyesight and the drivers licence should state whether glasses are required. End of.

The headline is a bit of a joke. Anyone should lose their licence for driving with inadequate sight, it's a no brainer. It just so happens that 70 is the threshold after which people are asked to renew their licences and answer these questions again, which is fair given so many will be on medication and have health issues.

Was he perhaps trying to get a free eye test and was either ineligible or found the usual places, opticians' premises etc, were unwilling to do it for free?

That would assume for someone in their 80s in a rural area that they were both able to predict the trashing of public transport and had the money to move somewhere more expensive. I know people who did move to the nearest small town in their 60s only to find transport links cut ten years later.

Removing someone from their support network is also a contributor to decline. I don’t want unsafe drivers on the road but the issues of rural transport are genuine and needs addressing, both for people trying to work and for those not able to drive.

My DM ended up going private for exactly this reason. The wait was so long (years) that the second eye started developing and she wasn’t happy driving even with one declining eye, it was out of the question once the second was clouding.

Many older people use their life savings to pay for cataract/hip type surgeries due to lengthy waits, despite the evidence showing that quick treatment of these types of conditions can result in longer good health and mobility ie lower overall cost to the state.

@tartyflette probably a special DVLA vision test that's not available everywhere or appointment with hospital opthalmology department.

Good.
If they fail the test and the issue can't be corrected with glasses or contacts then they should be off the roads because it's unsafe. Of course it will make life harder for them but it's not ok for anyone, of any age, to be driving away with poor eyesight.
I think everyone should have to have compulsory eye tests every few years. Declining vision creeps up on people and often they don't realize how bad it is if they aren't having regular tests.

I'm in an EU country where you have to provide a statement from an optician about your eyesight or, in some cases, from an opthamologist who will do field vision tests among other things, before you start driving lessons. Opticians in this country only prescribe glasses, they don't do tests or examine the eye like UK opticians do.
In any case, if you have to wear glasses or contacts to drive that is recorded on the back of the driving licence and you can get points/be fined/be banned for driving without them.
I had cataracts a couple of years ago (quite young), they developed very quickly and I stopped myself from driving until they were operated on. The surgeon told me there are people driving around all over the place with far worse eyesight than mine was. That's very scary.
After the operation I no longer needed glasses and it was a right rigamarole to get the "glasses or contacts" symbol removed from the back of the licence, with lots of opthalmologist tests first.

Some things in this country are stricter than the UK system regarding eyesight and driving but we still haven't got to the point where you have to have regular tests and I really think we should.

I don't understand why the man in the article couldn't get an optician's appointment or am I missing something?

The testing of elderly drivers has come up many times before in parliament over a few decades. Nothing has been done. So, It is unlikely that anything will be done now.

Firstly, the medical profession will object, on the grounds of confidentiality, to be made to inform the dvla about an elderly person’s poor eyesight.

Secondly, the elderly are a majority voting block, so will never agree to this. They will have hige support from local councillors, ministers and large organisations/lobby groups like Age UK. Cue soecial pleading on channel 4 news as an elderly person living in the sticks tells the nation about lack of bus services.

Thirdly, it can only really be enforced when an elderly person has an accident or kills someone through poor eyesight induced driving. There simply aren’t the police officers around to do stop and checks of the elderly.

We will simply continue with self cert and elderly people saying they’re fine, or that their past unblemished record is proof of perfect driving in the future.

@Iloveeverycat Lots of the eye conditions that are more likely to affect older people such as cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration aren't corrected by glasses. Makes it even more important to have your eyes regularly tested at an optician when you get older.