to think that driving ability should be re-tested at some point in old age?

[var123]

just that really.

www.itv.com/news/story/2016-02-12/eight-children-hit-by-car-outside-school-in-liverpool/

Even if it turns out that the woman involved in this case was generally fit to drive, there have been other accidents when you hear it was an 80+ person at the wheel driving up the wrong side of the motorway or something.

I know other drivers can be dangerous too, but in their case, its more usually that they are choosing not to drive safely at that moment than they can't, so its harder to test for.

Are you sure he is covered Saucy , fil has mild dementia and the Dr said he couldn't drive and it invalidates his insurance so mil now drives. He was/is a good dtiver

My father had a car until fairly shortly before his death and completely refused to give it up because to him it represented - whether or not he actually drove it - the ability to 'get up and go' if he wanted to/ youth/independence/ all those good things. No one would drive with him because he was downright dangerous in later years with indifferent vision and road sense and a persistence in driving 'shortcuts' which he remembered from being a lad and - in nearly all cases - where the road no longer existed in the same form it had once been.

It was difficult to handle because he could still concentrate and appear entirely together for the few minutes that were required to 'deal with' the GP or officialdom. Only his family saw the true deterioration. I don't know what the general answer should be although I know what we did as a family.

I'm all for removing dangerous drivers from the roads.

But if you look at data for all incidents, you'd be taking the under 25s off the road first.

The over 80s are way down the list in terms of number of accidents they cause, something that is all too easy to forget when there has been a headline grabbing incident.

Someone said upthread that elderly may not have big accidents so could be under reported.

I think everyone should be retested every five years.

Hmm. Today we lost a wing mirror because a Mum with junior school age children parked the other side of the road after we had parked and a roadsweeper hit our car because she hasn't left enough room for a large vehicle.
DS had a woman in her 30s go into the back of his car just after he had bought it.
A woman in her 30s went into the side of my car because she was in a hurry to get to work and didn't see MA.
Based on my straw poll all women in their 30s should be tested to ensure their fitness to drive a car.
I am not against retesting people, but I do think that people make age an issue, when other age groups are also dangerous.

There really have been far too many horrible accidents involving elderly drivers recently. Today's involved several kids outside a school. I hope they are ok, what a nightmare for the families.
Young driver's issues seem to be crashing at speed but these accidents involving the elderly seem to be largely losing control in residential areas and mounting pavements etc. The problem is self regulation as many elderly people will not
realise they are ageing or be in denial about their decline. Change in the system is overdue!

"There really have been far too many horrible accidents involving elderly drivers recently"

Fixed that for you.

Older drivers really aren't the biggest causes of accidents, not by quite a margin.

I think confirmation bias is at work here.

Sorry, wasn't clear

Fatal Accidents

The elderly are rarely involved in accidents where people die. That's pretty much solely people under 25.

This thread is ageist and knee jerky

I think that elderly people who are bad drivers have always been bad drivers, but age will make things worse. I do wonder if these smart arse boy racers will make "good" old drivers - probably be dead before then. And it's not normally old drivers who cause accidents texting, phoning, playing game and filming the traffic. And do we know if the old lady was at fault? have the Police said so?

Rate of accidents per mile is irrelevantly you're looking at number of accidents that they cause.

Because if your aim is to reduce accidents, you take the most dangerous off the road, irrespective of their annual mileage.

The insurance industry has very sophisticated indices for assessing risk.

And it's based on those who own and insure cars, not number of licence holders (same with any age group).

Surely if younger drivers are involved in more serious accidents that makes them more dangerous?
You can't say ,as posters seem to be, that older drivers are dangerous because they have more accidents which would be more serious if they drove faster ....because they don't drive faster, do they?

As licences have to be renewed every 10 years, I think everyone should be retested at that time.

My own perception is that eg people in their 50s and 60s are pretty decent drivers - but over 80?? I'm sure many of us can think of the mental and physical deterioration of friends and relatives by that age and the thought of putting them, unassisted, in charge of a car aka 'killing machine' hardly bears thinking about.

I think when you look at the Glasgow bin lorry crash and the man who blacked-out in the the 4X4 and killed the two young girls, plus the issue of elderly drivers who are not safe, that actually the big issue is that reporting of medical issues to the DVLA needs revamped radically.

I think you are being unreasonable for concluding her age was the issue without any evidence - you don't know if her car was faulty, another driver caused her to swerve ...

Younger drivers are far more likely to be in accidents

I think we should all be retested every few years

DD and I were hit head on by a 60-something-year old lady just before Christmas. Her little granddaughter was in the car with her.

Both cars were written off, luckily we came away with relatively moderate injuries, some of which are ongoing. The anxiety and lasting inability to trust anyone on the road will take longer to get over than the physical pain.

Her excuse to the police for being COMPLETELY on the wrong side of the road, as she came round a blind bend?? She couldn't remember.

I'm not saying this is necessarily age related, but GET OFF THE ROAD if you can't drive responsibly.

She could have killed us both

Those poor girls in Liverpool.

Retesting every 10 years would not be a bad thing, but should apply to everyone, regardless of age.
More publicity about conditions that must be reported to the DVLA would also help.

Poor girls and their families. I hope they all have speedy recoveries.
I agree with mandatory testing for everyone every 5 years - including medical reviews. A member of my family is Type 1 diabetic and has had several hypos whilst driving. Utterly terrifying. I've never been in the car with them but have seen them walking around whilst having one and the first thing that goes (with them) is coordination and balance.

"actually the big issue is that reporting of medical issues to the DVLA needs revamped radically"

Agree very much with this.

ghostyslovesheep I didn't conclude that. I was careful not to conclude anything in my OP. But I do suspect that its highly likely that she wasn't fit to drive, and I won't be too surprised if it turns out that she has slow reaction times and reduced mobility.

I would think most elderly drivers will tax and insure their cars what about those who aren't taxed or insured or don't even have a drivers license.

driving illegally

Woodhill - that's true - uninsured drivers need to be dealt with much better than they are.
It doesn't immediately help you though if you meet a car coming down the exit ramp on a motorway and it won't help that 11 year old girl who is in hospital tonight with head injuries.

Are there any countries where there is a compulsory retest at a given age? Does anyone know?