To get my grandma's driving license revoked? And how?

[jilldoyoulikeowls]

Sorry, just hoping for some traffic as quite worried.

My grandma is recently widowed and we live rurally. She has diminishing sight and has recently been diagnosed with cataracts (the appointment at the hospital not until early Sep to see what will be done about them).

She is very independent and adamant she will continue to drive, and at her appointment at the opticians she insists they never mentioned anything about her stopping driving until they have been removed.

She has bumped a cyclist as he was in the shaded part of the road and she couldn't see him, and she can't see the remote control if on a worktop of dark colour, and can't make out anything if it's not in bright light.

She has also mounted the kerb.

I know I could simply take her keys (I don't know where she has stashed her spare though) but what else can I do?

The GP and opticians won't entertain me as it breached confidentiality.

I've stressed how dangerous she is. But she won't listen.

She has a problem with her foot this week so I know she is off the road for now.

I have offered to do all shopping etc etc. But will be quite an undertaking to ensure she's out and about as much as she is. But what other options are there.

Do I report to the police? DVLA?

Yes I’d definitely report to the dvla. I’m not sure what they will do but it’s worth trying to stop her driving. She is not safe to drive!

Report to DVLA, they can insist she takes a test to prove she is still capable or they may reach out to the GP for information. Be as specific as you can when you get in touch with them. We had to do this with an elderly client & he was sent on a 2 hour safety test

Ah great, thank you both.

Will report to DVLA this morning.

Much appreciated. She's a total danger on the roads, but she's also my recently bereaved old Nan so would rather someone else take her liberty away and not me.

Any idea if they will say who reported?

Talk to DVLA as there is a minimum eye sight requirement. However, I'm not sure what information they can get medically without your Gran's cooperation. Maybe the doctor would be willing to have a conversation with her when he next sees her?
Also, if she lives rurally, perhaps you can help by checking alternative transportation.

I sympathise with you. My mil was like this, and also my aunt. My mother looks like she will be too.

With my mil we took a bit of the engine away so the car wouldn't start, and 'could not get it booked in this week', until she relaxed into being driven around and stopped asking. With my aunt she had an operation and the car didn't get serviced- again she relaxed into getting lifts and the bus. My mother was livid that her family were taking her 'freedom' away, even when I pointed out she was dangerous and could kill someone my mum thought it wasn't fair the aunt was being prevented from driving. She'd hit two walls and injured herself in the months prior to that.

I guess you have to speak to the police if she won't listen?

We had to do this with my nan when she was diagnosed with dementia, she was adamant she was fine to drive when obviously she wasn't so we reported it to the dvla who wrote to her, thankfully we didn't have a battle getting the keys off her after she had read the letter x

You report to the DVLA.

my mum was sent for a sight test at specsavers to ensure her sight was good enough for driving.
still not totally sure how she passed it.

Remove her keys and sit her down and confront her with how poor her sight now is. The recent accidents and near misses. Get the rest of the family to gang up on her too. If that fails, call dvla. She has lost a lot of her previous life and independence so must be very scared. Make it clear that you are speaking because you love her. You don't want to lose her in a car accident, or have her kill or injure someone else, because you know how that would destroy her.
Help her to apply for Attendance Allowance to pay for taxis, and supply her with a couple of taxi company's numbers. Challenge her to ask the optician explicitly whether her sight is good enough for driving.
Stress that it's temporary- once she has her cataracts done she should be fine to drive again.

They shouldn't mention anything about who reported her. And if they deem her unfit but she sneakily tries to drive anyway because she still 'has her licence' as in still physically has her card, ring the non emergency police number & an officer will remove that as well. Older people can be really stubborn when it comes to driving i've found!

Maybe ask her to stop until after her surgery rather than a blanket ban? Cataracts are treatable and may be no reason not to drive afterwards. Until then suggest you set up a taxi account for her as she won’t want to lose her independence (and who can blame her?). Lots of local communities have dial a ride or community transport schemes which she might consider until her operation.
Remind her it’s not for long and get her to make the decision rather than destroy your relationship by being overly controlling. She’s an adult, allow her to be one.

If anyone - regardless of age or emotional state, or reliance on car - has impaired eyesight (whether permanent or temporary) then they should not be driving.

It sounds as if she should stop driving until the cataracts are sorted out. But she could well be good to go once they are fixed.

And that might be why the doctor/optician isn't taking action - because this isn't a permanent banning issue. Eyesight can be properly corrected, and loads of people drive with cataracts, or immediately after treatment, depending on severity.

She needs support, until her eyesight is sorted. I'm assuming you're local, as you know so much about the details of her journeys. It's a lot to ask - which may be why she hasn't asked - but can you give lifts for the next month until prognosis is known?

My aunt had cataracts and while waiting for surgery and was told by the Opticians that she was not legal to drive until then, but I only know this because I was with her at the appointment, up until then she had been trying to deny it. Luckily she grudgingly accepted this and family & neighbours rallied round to help with shopping. If she hadn't I would have either taken her keys or contacted the DVLA. What we did do was just keep reminding my aunt that the driving ban was only temporary and once she had had the surgery she would be fine to drive again, which she was.

DVLA reports stay anonymous so your nan would not be told in any circumstances where the report had come from. From my experience I believe the likely way of proceeding is that she will receive a medical questionnaire in the post which she must respond to (or the licence will be revoked for non compliance). Then DVLA writing to her GP or sending her straight for an eyesight test. The eyesight standards are really clear, and if she does not meet them then the licence will be revoked.

You would definitely be doing the right thing to report if you are concerned.

Report to the DVLA - you can do it anonymously online. If she asks if it was you, you can either come clean or say it must have been the cyclist (or whoever you want to pick). Your choice.

DVLA then asks for her permission to contact the GP for her medical records and the game is up. If she says no, the game is still up as they don't let it lie.

Oh, and we also reminded Aunt that if she had an accident and the police were involved she could be disqualified from driving - this as well as the potential to cause injury to others also helped our case.

We (optometrists) legally have to inform patients if their vision falls below driving standard and also inform the DVLA if we think the patient will continue to drive. So its likely that she either has been told, or her vision is still within legal limits for driving even with the cataracts.

Your mother though is legally obliged to inform the DVLA that she has cataracts. She can do that here or fill in form V1V. She can be fined up to £1000 if she fails to do it.

[https://www.gov.uk/report-driving-medical-condition]. The DVLA will then probably arrange for a field of vision test.

From what you've posted. she's clearly not safe to drive, so if I were you, I would mention that she needs to inform the DVLA and then tell her she needs to check to see if her vision is good enough. She needs to be able to read a car numberplate at 20metres. If she can't read i, great then she will know that her vision isn't good enough. If she can read it then I would suggest that maybe its isn't that clear and she should wait until the appointment at the hospital. Suggest its only short term as cataracts are easily dealt with and hopefully her vision will be significantly better in a couple of months time.

I sympathise with you OP. My grandad was like this - cataracts in both eyes so no peripheral vision - and his reactions were very slow. In short, he was a danger on the roads, but no one, not his GP or his optician, would recommend that he stopped driving. I really feel that anyone with sight problems should have a 'suitability to drive test'. But yes, contact the DVLA.

Thank you so much all.

I've stressed how dangerous it is. Reminded her of the weight of the grief we all felt at my grandads death and how if she died too we would all have to go through this again. Or that she could be putting another family through the horrific experience of loss.

I've told her we will help, but of course she doesn't want to be a burden, she has friends to see, shopping to do etc etc.

Not an excuse, but she's emotional as it is, to take her car away is going to push her to a life at home at the mercy of family and friends visiting/transporting her etc.

I am going to report and am grateful for all the responses.

Any idea if the GP or opticians will tell her someone has tried to speak on her behalf/interfere with her records etc?

I think the best advice is to somehow "nobble" the car. Reporting to the DVLA only results in their contacting the GP.

Fil's driving was terrible . He crashed into a wall when visiting mil in her care home and the matron suggested to us he stopped driving. The GP, however, said it was "up to his conscience" and of course fil's desire to be independent trumped all other considerations. (He had a stroke a week after declaring that he would never give up driving...)

If she's not paying for a car she can choose to pay for taxis, she's not at the mercy of anyone!
My DM was killed by a pensioner drifting into oncoming traffic. Please report her, her preferences are secondary to the safety of innocents.

@cptartapp absolutely agree. So sorry for your loss. I will be on the phone with DVLA at 9am.

Everyone else in family agree that if optician didn't mention it she should be fine - quite sure they are reluctant to take away her independence and also commit to helping her out more.

I know it has to be done so will get her reported.

Thank you.

I bullied the GP into telling my DF that he couldn't drive any more. In his case, it wasn't cataracts, it was general ill health. She was most reluctant to do it, but did in the end. I made sure I was there when she told him, so that he couldn't say I didn't know what I was talking about. I also did not hesitate to use the emotional blackmail of saying that I lost my DM in a car crash (she wasn't the driver) and that I didn't want to lose my last remaining parent in the same way. He was furious, because I was 'taking away his independence'. At that point, he needed a zimmer to go to the toilet and then had to sit for ages to regain enough strength to walk the dozen steps back to his seat.

It is horrible, but for everyone's sake, you need to stop your granny from driving. Ask her how she would feel if she killed someone. Sometimes you need to be brutal to get the message across.

Is anyone else insured to drive her car? When my aunt's dementia got to the point she wasn't safe to drive, my uncle drove her car to a friend's house and hid the keys until he could sell it (he joint owned the car anyway)

My grandmothers car “got a puncture” it took us ages to get it booked in for repair, then when it went in there was loads wrong with it so it had to be sold. Helps to know a local mechanic though.