To be genuinely concerned about some of the older drivers on the road

[Melas]

I work at a hospital. Went to lunch today and was approached by a very confused elderly man who couldn’t find the clinic he needed for his wife. He was stooped over, had a tremor and was really frail. I pointed the clinic out three times and he was still confused so I walked him to the doors (he was shuffling) and then went to find a porter to help with his wife.

I came back from lunch and he was driving out of the car park with his wife. Car creeping along at 2mphs, he bumped over the pavement and on to the main road still at around 5-10mph as he went around the corner.

He could barely walk, how is he still driving safely? I do not condone drink driving at ALL but I could have a large glass of wine and be over the limit and I swear I would still be more responsive than he was.

We had an awful incident here a few years ago when an elderly man killed a 16 year old girl on her way to college. He’d had an accident a few days beforehand driving down the wrong side of the road but the police were unable to confiscate his licence (I think this may have changed by now).

Shouldn’t we be retesting at certain age by now? Even if it was 80 that would be something. I can’t stop thinking about this man driving around the roads still.

Yanbu!

I agree. It's one of my things.

I meet a lot of folk with dementia yet they're still allowed to drive and half the time family condone it as 'it's important to maintain his independence' - stuff that when it could be a child they knock over.

I personally think a dementia diagnosis should be an immediate ban and all people over a certain age should be retested regular.

Perhaps a more efficient way to go would be a theory retest and say to pass was 90/100 and above anything between 80/90 was a practical retest and anything below a fail?

I agree with re-testing post 75, BUT I'd say that in my experience there are truly awful drivers of all ages. Being in a car with any of the many u21's I know is white knuckle experience.

How many times are there threads on this very site where people say they can't undertake basic manoeuvres like reverse onto their own driveways, but will gaily reverse out across pavements and into traffic. Can't join motorways and have this odd compunction to slow down on a main road in moving traffic to let drivers out of side roads because "it's good manners". These drivers are presumably a lot less than 70 yet cannot follow the Highway Code.

In my area a 5 year old girl was killed at pedestrian lights (on red) while crossing with her mother.

The driver, in his 70s, did not see lights had changed or the pedestrians. A few weeks earlier he had been advised by his optician to give up driving. It was heartbreaking. The mother was in intensive care and woke up to discover her daughter was killed on impact. The mother was in her 40s and had had years of IVF for her precious child.

Today I had lunch with an aunt in her 70s who spoke of her terrible catarach. She couldn't see a sign opposite.

It's scary.

This is why I would never move to Florida. Full of old people and limited public transport.

Sorry the girl was 3. Here's a link www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/20/pensioner-drove-despite-poor-eyesight-jailed-killing-girl-3/

Absolutely retest people at 70. Then every 5 years. Me and the kids were nearly killed by an elderly driver this week and another one rammed in to my friends HOUSE because she couldn’t find the brake.

FIL was 87 and had a health condition that was unknown to us (aortic aneurysm).
He should have declared it to DVLA which would have meant his license would have been withdrawn. But he didn't.
Then he developed a cataract and had macular degeneration at which point we insisted he informed DVLA, which he did, reluctantly. His license was withdrawn by DVLA on a temporary basis until the cataract was operated on. But he continued to drive. We only found this out when he was done for speeding and had to attend a driving awareness course. It seems that the agencies don't talk to each other, so although he was done for speeding and his license was with DVLA he got away with it. Attended the course and that was that.
I reported it to DVLA who advised me to phone the police, so I did. Nothing happened.
I then reported him to CrimeStoppers. Nothing happened.
We sabotaged his car to stop him from driving. He was furious but I was more furious. There was a huge argument between him and DH.
Eventually after the cataract operation DVLA wrote to his GP to ask if he had any other medical conditions that could prevent him from driving and that is when the heart condition came to light.
DVLA told him they were cancelling his license. GP had a talk with him and we insisted the car was sold. It was within 48 hours.
I could never have forgiven myself if he had caused an accident and I had done nothing about it. But even reporting him did nothing.
He is still full of resentment for 'stopping his freedom', but he was a total liability and I hate him for being so so irresponsible.

Honestly it pisses me off that people don’t self declare, it’s seriously fucking selfish. Beyond reckless. I had a health condition that stopped me driving for 2 years. I was required to surrender my license and I did because it’s the right, legal and moral thing to do. If you are reading this and have had near misses a lot recently regardless of your age, book a few driving lessons to refresh and sort out shit out before you murder someone.

I think everyone should have to undergo some refresher training every 5 years including sight and reaction tests, from the age of 20. And the starting age should be raised to 18.

I agree that elderly drivers can be terrifying and for sure many are driving who should not be, but the statistics show that for the most part the accidents they have are minor bumps.

Roll on driverless cars...

Absolutely!!! It's really very dangerous I've seen a good number in supermarket car parks etc thinking to myself "this is a car park and it's bad how do they cope on a main road", I think re test more often as well

We had an incredibly hard time persuading my dad to stop driving when his eyesight started to go - eventually reported to the DVLA and the chap who took the call said it was very common. The optician told my brother that she sees lots of people driving that she's advised to stop. Luckily we got to the point where the car was going to need stuff doing so he agreed it wasn't worth hanging on to it for my brother to use when he was up visiting (we were pretty sure he had still been using it even though the DVLA told him he wasn't to until they'd completed the assessment).

Even though he wasn't going far or driving fast we were terrified that someone would step out in front of him on the local high street (which is packed with octogenarians like my dad - it's like Last of the Summer Wine is a documentary round ours) and he'd not see them. He did stop in the end but it was very difficult because in his head he's not old

I was actually talking to DM and DF about this the other day but in regards to people driving like maniacs, people speeding up to stop at a red light and overtaking cars doing the speed limit, a guy nearly smashed into the front of my car today as he drove (too fast) down the road past parked cars (with his phone to his ear) then jolted the wheel out to avoid the car door opening on the parked cars-- thankfully I don't drive like a twat and managed to avoid it but it's never the people who drive like this who end up injured, always innocent people

No one wants to admit they’re getting old
Or that they can’t cope
That’s why we need to have retesting at 70
I think thats a respectable age
But fuck, it’s scary out there with older drivers.
Most normal “older” people admit when they need to give in.
But the stubborn fuckers who don’t, are fucking aresholes and funnily enough, I would imagine they’ve been aresholes most of their lives

Totally agree with retesting. I think it would be unfair maybe to make older drivers use sat navs in tests as I know my mum has never used one before and they are not needed to drive safely. It was very hard to stop my dad from driving and a retest would have taken the thing out of our hands which would have been kinder. Unusual to find a thread we all agree on.

Absolutely op. There's lots of elderly drivers around here going super slow and causing hazardous overtaking. They have free bus passes , it's ridiculous really.

No one wants to admit they can’t cope anymore with a car
Both my father and uncle gave up their licenses on their own.
I respect them for that
They have never killed anyone

YADNBU

Last week I was attempting to enter a heaving car park in the middle of town during the school holidays...lots of young children and families about. As I pulled into the car park another car, driven by a man in his late 70s/early 80s, headed straight at me, meaning I had to slam the brakes on leaving me half still on the road and half in the car park. I was being tailgated so the car behind me nearly went into the back of me. The elderly gentleman was ignoring the fact that he was coming the wrong way out of the car park. It was a one way system and he was attempting to exit via the entrance, which I was now stuck in.

I gestured to him and politely explained it was a one way system and he was trying to get out the entrance. The exit was on the opposite side of the car park. There was a lot of signage both on the tarmac and physical signs around the car park making it crystal clear that it was a one way system and pointing to the exit.

Immediately after seeing me point at the signs and mouth, “it’s one way!”, he started to reverse at speed without looking in his rear view mirror, narrowly missing a parent with a pushchair and two older children in tow. Then he started heading towards me again! I was still stuck as traffic was now behind me queuing to get into the car park and I was gesturing frantically, and shouting out the window “You’re going the wrong way!”. He started trying to drive around me to get out the entrance. There was clearly only room for one car.

He crashed into one of the trolley shelters from the supermarket attached to the car park, leaving a big dent in the plastic and knocking into all the trolleys as well as damaging his car significantly. Did he stop to asses the damage? Nope. He reversed straight back, again not checking who was behind him and forced his way out of the entrance to the car park, leaving a load of pedestrians and car drivers staring open mouthed at what we’d all just seen.

Today I also had an incident with an elderly driver where two lanes were supposed to merge into one on a bog standard 30mph road. His was the lane that was to merge with mine. I was tooting along keeping up with the flow of traffic, probably around 27 mph and he was going much slower (well under 20 mph). There was no one behind me so he should have just pulled in behind my car. Instead he suddenly put his foot down, began to veer into my lane without indicating, then stopped completely! Half in my lane, half not and I had to slam my brakes on. I didn’t have time to swerve. The car behind him very nearly went into him. A split second later and I would have crashed into his car. He acted like he’d just stopped at a give way! I did let him pull in front in the end but then for the rest of the journey, without a word of a lie, he drove at 15mph and kept veering in towards stationary cars to the extent I thought he was parking before veering back in front of me.

My father is about to turn 70 and terrified of losing his licence so I am sympathetic but have to admit that I think over 70s should be re-tested every 2 years.

My dad got diagnosed with dementia and that was one of the first things he asked about, the response was that he could keep driving until he felt ready to give up. We were shocked as we thought that the license would be instantly revoked. Thankfully Dad gave up driving almost instantly but it could have been so much worse.

I think everyone should have a 5 yearly retest, tbh. For every driver who hones their driving skills with time, there seems to be several who simply let bad habits take hold.

Mil was terrifying. Not in a slow hesitant way. She'd drive up the arse of whoever was nlucky enough to be directly in front while looking at the views and chatting 90 to the dozen.

Honestly it pisses me off that people don’t self declare, it’s seriously fucking selfish

But even when they self-declare, they are still allowed to drive. DF (84) has declared his Parkinsons to DVLA and they have not withdrawn his license and yet he is considered frail enough to receive attendance allowance.

Someone should also address the situation of people driving without a licence or insurance, at any age while considering re-tests. The number of people (not elderly) that reverse on roundabouts is ridiculous, for one thing.

While they are at it, teach people how to use a crossing, just because it is a crossing doesn't mean you can walk out in front of a car in rain and fog without checking if a car is coming and then complain when you are knocked over.

Neither is it OK to saunter out into the road and expect cars to stop because the only other option is to run you down (young people).

And the youngsters playing 'chicken' in traffic and then bursting into tears when they are almost hit.

The old people with the mobility scooter things that run children down on the pavement and drag them along under the wheels (and anyone else that gets in the way), how are they allowed to have those scooters if they are as bad as the car drivers?

People get away with a lot these days.

But even when they self-declare, they are still allowed to drive.

If you know you have a condition that prevents you driving safely, if you still get in front of that wheel then you are an utterly selfish bastard. Regardless of what the DVLA say. They can’t know everyone’s eyesight or tremor or lack of awareness. The person driving does and I don’t care if they are in denial about it.

It’s Murder really
If you know you’re not fit enough to drive
But then death by dangerous driving is a joke too