To think people should re take their driving test at 70?

[PotterAndHisWand]

Most of my Grandmothers friends (age 80 plus) who drive should not be on the road in my opinion as they drive dangerously and don't have the reactions of younger drivers.

I realise that there are a lot of accidents caused by young drivers but I really feel fr safety's sake people should re take their driving test at 70... AIBU?

Of course it's different, and of course it's a serious measure. It's simply that it is not a useful measure if your aim is to reduce the number of people harmed, as the numbers of incidents show that the elderly are not those causing most.

And for avoidance of doubt, could I reiterate something of my post above - I'd be completely happy with a regular retesting regime. But where I diverge from (some, not all) is in thinking it will not advance road safety if it were targeted at groups other than those cause most accidents. As I said, I support those who would like to see a form of retesting done for all drivers, which is probably most easily done at renewals.

And I certainly agree that DVLA standards on who should be barred from driving need revision and updating (I am always absolutely horrified by threads enquiring about the advisability of driving in labour, or just after abdominal surgery), and would be happy to see enforcement strengthened.

Age alone should not be cause for retesting.

My parents are in their early 70s and have driven extensively all their lives - all over the world in fact. They drove for their work. Hundreds of miles a week. They still do drive a huge amount.

It pisses me off enormously that they are perceived as being worse drivers than a jittery inexperienced 21 year old who hates to drive at night or go on motorways.

You cannot compare the skill and ability of a lifelong highly experienced driver with someone who only dusts the car down on Sundays for a brief trip to Tesco.

Suggesting that all 70+ are dangerous drivers is as ludicrous as suggesting that all women drivers are crap or that all young men are boy racers.

YANBU- hearing and sight and reaction time does worsen as you age. Many illnesses require a doctors say before you can drive. Why is age treated differently? Same symptoms.

YANBU. My car parked stationary outside my house was hit by an old man driving his car. Witnesses said that he drifted. A telco delivery truck got stuck somehow in that mess and traffic came to a standstill for an hour.

He apparently feel asleep . My car had to be repaired and thankfully we got a replacement in the meantime as we had major roles in friend's wedding the next day! Also had a 4 month old baby at that time and thankfully was delayed by a poo-ey nappy otherwise would have been in the car trying to pull out!!! . He subsequently died (don't think to do with the crash but maybe that didn't help).

mishtake, i don't think older people are worse drivers, i don't see where i have said that

But it is a FACT that as we age, all of us, our health does get worse, especially eye site, so it does make sense that past a certain age people should be given a medical with that information passed to DVLA, and that if a driver is found by the police to have not passed an on the spot eye test they should have their license taken away until they can be assessed by the appropriate people.

A car can kill someone, it is a dangerous machine, in any other circumstances someone using a dangerous machine who couldn't pass an eye test or medical wouldn't be able to use that machine.

My husband has to have a medical every year because he works with machinery, everyone at the company does, they have a medical proffesional come in and do it,, they do not and will not ever give my DH a form from which he is allowed to conclude his general and specific health, to do so would be ridiculous and negelectful, don't you think?

Two examples.
1/ a while back, I drove past a stooping, elderly gentleman, who lives near my boss, working his way, using the car for support, round to the drivers seat, and opening the door. I carried on past, stopped at my bosses house, posted something through the letter box, reversed out, turned round and drove back down the road. He still hadn't made it fully into the drivers seat!! In 5 minutes +!!
2/ stopped at my local Coop. A small car had been reversed up to the kerb, on double yellows, and parked at a 45 degree angle to the kerb with one back tyre actually on the pavement. An elderly lady struggled out, hobbled to the drivers door and helped the driver out of the car. The driver was even more elderly, and needed a walker to get about!! I later followed the same car up the hill out of the village at 16mph!
Our village is full of incredibly decrepit old people, who drive incredibly slowly, nose to windscreen, and can barely walk.
Now stats might say that this group of drivers don't have accidents, bu maybe their saving grace is that they don't drive faster than 20mph, and that they tend to stick to visiting the local store, rather than epic motorway journeys. BUT, that is hardly the point. You can't tell me that someone who needs a walking frame to get about, or who takes 5 Jeffing minutes to lower themselves into the driving seat, can possibly have the reactions needed to perform an emergency stop in the event of an accident? And accidents can occur anywhere, at any time. What if a small child ran into the road, whilst they were driving through the village?
The elderly, and many other types of driver, need to be retested regularly. I know the elderly are often fiercely attached to their independence, but there has to be a cut off point!

The trouble is that when things change gradually like declining health, eyesight, etc it is hard to say at which point it becomes a problem so an independent check is a good idea. Just as we don't notice our children growing but someone who sees them once a year will notice a huge difference no-one notices their own health changing. I had a lovely old uncle who was still convinced he could drive right up to the point where he was registered blind, it was like watching Mr Magoo but he was really offended at any suggestions he should give up.

It can also put a GP in a very difficult position if they had to do assessments and refuse people. They work hard to build up good relationships with patients and this could really sour things especially if the GP is aware of the importance to them of driving. I think it would be better done as a mini-test at driving test centres where it can be more objective and impersonal.

yabu...heath problem can happen at any age.

shouldn.t be age related. but i think every 10 years you should have to have a refresher course.
both parents and pil are over the age of 70 and one is a bad driver but has been that way for my living memory so age has not done that.
the days i get cut up on the road or near misses seem to be with younger people or those distracted by kids or phone or something else. very rarely is it an older person just being old.

dreadful
87 years old. He had a car accident three days before, going the wrong way into a petrol station. His foot slipped onto the accelerator! He failed a sight test, then refused to turn in his license. Three days later, he killed a 16yo girl. Mounted the kerb twice, and then mowed her down. Police believe the accident was caused by 'unintentional acceleration'.
Try telling her parents retesting shouldn't be age related!

Do the stats account for there being fewer 75 plus drivers? Or do they just make fewer accidents because most of them aren't driving? That was a very sad story Catpuss

70 is too young for a retest.

But I think it should happen at 80.

Whenever I see erratic/dangerous driving on the road and get the chance to glance at the driver (or instruct DH to give them a Hard Stare as we pass ) the driver is inevitably...

A young lad in a baseball cap with one arm draped over the steering wheel

A business man in a suit conducting Important Business on a mobile phone

An old person.

My grandma drove long past she was really capable. Her insurance premiums had risen to just short of £1000 a year where previously it'd had been less than half that through Saga.

She was always reversing into cars/driving into walls and bollards and getting very indignant about people shouting at her because of it! She was very much as ClothCat described the people in her post.

The fact she never had a serious accident was down to the skill and attention of other drivers and not because she was still safe on the road. She finally stopped when I told her that I couldn't in all good conscience not say anything. She insisted she were more capable of driving than walking and that not driving would put an end to her independence (which it pretty much did) but her reactions were just too slow. There is no way she'd have been able to react quickly enough if a child ran out in front of her. I told her that if she continued to drive knowing how we (the whole family, not just me) felt and she caused an accident I'd never forgive her. She stopped. It was horrible. But definitely the right thing to do.

The problem was she felt so safe and protected by her metal box, she couldn't see that she herself was a risk.

I would support regular retesting for all drivers. You have to renew your passport every 10 years even though to are unlikely to have changed identity/appearance all that much, yet you can pass a diving test at 17 (or in fact, never have passed a test at all if over a certain age) and never be tested again, despite the potentially dangerous nature of driving. It makes no sense to me.

Couple that with the fact that roads and vehicles are so much different these days to 50-60 years ago, and constantly change. Regular assessment every 10-20 years for most drivers and then every 5 years over the age of 65 seems sensible.

I also support the Irish system of new drivers having compulsory P plates for a year after passing their test and not being able to drive on motorways in that time.

I also don't see why good drivers shouldn't be retested, as some seem to be saying. If they're good drivers then they'll pass the test - they've got nothing to worry about! But it will weed out or re-educate the weaker ones.

@Edith. According to the following link from Which magazine:

www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/reviews-ns/car-insurance/insurance-for-older-drivers/

people over 75 pay significantly more for car insurance than do the middle-aged and 60% of insurers will not insure over 80s at all.

Can you tell me where you got the statistics on older drivers and insurance from ? Are you maybe looking at statistics for drivers who are over 60 - most of whom will be in the 60-70 range, old enough to be very sensible, and young enough not to yet have age-related decline ? Whereas the rest of the thread is about people with serious age-related decline - generally setting in somewhere around 80, sometimes a bit earlier.

I don't think moreover that anyone is suggesting that all older drivers are bad, simply that some older people have health concerns that are rare in the younger population and which render you unfit to drive. If only 10% of older drivers have these health concerns, it's still worth doing a medical check-up, much as, for example, we screen all pregnant women for diabetes. I think we all know at least one person with incipient dementia or seriously compromised eyesight who is still driving.

Saggy, I've posted a link to the e petition set up by the girl's family, it's called cassie's law.

I know of three over 70s that should not be on the road. My Dad, my FiL and my MiL, I'd also like to add my SiL to that list, but since she only passed her test in October I should give her a bit more time.

Everyone picks up bad habits once they have passed their test.

Re-testing and renewing a licence every 5 years would be a better option IMHO.

I've been driving 30 years and I assure you I would not pass my test now. I slide the wheel, I slip the clutch, I park in , the list is endless of minor infringments.

Personally I don't think anyone with children under 5 in the car should be allowed to drive either....trying to concentrate when there are 2 tantrums going on in an enclosed tin box isn't easy....the gov't should provide funds to allow them to get taxis.

YANBU at all, I completely agree. There's a very lovely old man in his 80s who drives around the village in his smart car. I passed him in the street last week and said hello and he had to come up to within about 6 inches of my face because he couldn't see who it was who had spoken to him. My FIL has Parkinsons and still drives even though he admits he 'probably shouldn't, but I don't want to lose my independence'. But he can because the doc asks him if he feels he can drive and he says Yes. That's all it takes.

Agree with Queen!

three under 5's - madness. I should have had a chauffeur

Retesting is a political nightmare, and because the actual number of deaths and injuries caused is actually very small (because the over 70s drive low mileages and low speeds) it's probably not warranted. (yes I know that one death is too many, but if we actually believed that we'd put in a lot of additional measures first - a curfew for teenaged drivers and immediate crushing the cars of uninsured drivers for example).

But there's no excuse whatsoever for not imposing an objective eye test on the 70+ form you go to your local optician and have to pass a standard test before you get a certificate to be sent back with your form.

It is illegal to drive when under the influence of drugs, or alcohol. I remember a case involving a truck driver I think who fell aslepp at the wheel and caused an accident. In court it was proved that falling asleep at the wheel occured because he had stayed up the night before and hence he shoudl have known that when he got behind the wheel he was unfit to drive and the court threw the book at him.

In my view, driving while knowingly unfit to drive for any reason should be a prosecutable offence and that means eye sight or physical ability. I would support the testing of eyesight and having to get a doctors letter to state the person is medically fit to drive every 5 years. Once over age 70 a test every 1 - 2 years woudl be a god idea. Certain medical conditions should result in automatic disqualification.

My own father has driven all his life but as he approaches 70 his driving has deteriorated sharply becase he has a frozen shoulder and find it hard to grip the wheel with both hands. He swerves a lot as a result. Problem is he chose to live in a house in a village so needs to drive. If he lived on a bus route or in a town he would not need to drive. Mty FIL is the same. Only stopped driving whjen he had a minor accident but for years he quite obvioulsy could not see rioad signs very well and his reaction time and peripheral vision was terrible.

Problem is that people regards driving as a right and not a privellege - even if that endangers other people. Politicians won't touch it though for fear of upsetting the baby boomer block vote who are now in their 60s and 70s.