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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Elderly drivers should be tested

306 replies

HeidiHoNeighbour · 10/08/2020 22:49

91 year old killed a 3 year old in Edinburgh.
She’s been arrested.

Where I live (NW London) lots of elderly drivers are scarier than the teens racing.

A woman was killed in Sainsbury’s car park near me and the 80ish year old was upset he’d be late!

I think everyone should be retested every ten years.

OP posts:
Jargo · 10/08/2020 22:58

They do reapply every three years though. Maybe that needs to become tougher.

Who would pay for the tests?

A lot of deterioration could happen in ten years.

I think more road deaths come from youngsters - do we test them repeatedly too?

BTW - one of my closest friends witnessed that accident, it was horrific by all accounts so this isn't me just being a dick.

Original poster
HeidiHoNeighbour · 10/08/2020 23:08

@Jargo

I saw it too. He did not care.

The reapplying is just paper based box ticking. Not a retest.

I think if had to retake their test then the money from that would pay for it.
I have no idea how much a test costs now £50?

OP posts:
Original poster
HeidiHoNeighbour · 10/08/2020 23:10

I also mean every ten years from passing your test

OP posts:
aprilfools19 · 10/08/2020 23:14

My grandma at 89 accidentally put her foot down on the accelerator instead of break and swerved into a bench on the side of the road. Had anyone been sitting on it, they’d likely be dead if not seriously injured.

I definitely think they should have to retake tests. Not to the high standard of a first driving test for the incessant mirror checks etc but certainly just to make sure they’re still safe on the road.

Freddiefox · 10/08/2020 23:15

Yanbu, Young drivers get a lot of bad press. They now have certain conditions and limits on the first year of driving. Elderly people who are not fit to drive really shouldn’t be on the road. We should all have to re take out tests regularly but particularly older people.

Merryoldgoat · 10/08/2020 23:19

I was driving behind a woman the other day who was utterly terrifying. She was very slow, veering over the road and didn’t use her signals.

As it happened she was stopping about 20 metres from me and she couldn’t park at all (there were easily three car lengths).

There is absolutely no way she should’ve been driving.

PhoneLock · 10/08/2020 23:20

Tragic, but at what age would you start the testing?

30?

www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=pYQEVszYIYLj8weZs5mgAg

Original poster
HeidiHoNeighbour · 10/08/2020 23:21

@aprilfools19

I hope your grandma no longer drives!
Thankfully no one was hurt

OP posts:
WinterAndRoughWeather · 10/08/2020 23:23

My grandad carried on driving way past a reasonable point - he was technically blind ffs.

TimeFlysWhenYoureHavingRum · 10/08/2020 23:23

Yep. Agree with this. People develop bad habits over time anyway which some form of regular assessment would help address. After a certain age (65 / 70?) everyone needs to face up to the fact that their reaction times might not be what they were.
It could save lives and create a lot of jobs. Win / win.

aprilfools19 · 10/08/2020 23:23

HeidiHoNeighbour well she’s dead so, no she doesn’t lol
Yeah poor thing was so shaken up by it. It was hard for my mum and I not to say “I told you so” because we’d been telling her for a couple of years at that point to stop. But typical stubborn old lady thought she was invincible.

Original poster
HeidiHoNeighbour · 10/08/2020 23:23

@PhoneLock

Every ten years from passing your test.
Just the practical

OP posts:
AuntieStella · 10/08/2020 23:27

Most road fatalities involve drivers under the age of 25.

If your aim is the frequently repeatedly re-test the most dangerous drivers, then start with the young ones.

Original poster
HeidiHoNeighbour · 10/08/2020 23:29

@aprilfools19

Sorry about grandma

I think it may also stop the “stubbornness” of some drivers if they are retested.
If they fail they stop driving and apply for test.

I’m making it very black and white but it does seem quite simple.

OP posts:
veewee · 10/08/2020 23:29

I completely agree that it should be every 10 years from passing.

One of my neighbours is in her 50's, she's had operations on both of her retinas, can 'only see shapes' (in her own words) & still drives! I know she has been reported quite a few times, but nothing has been done! She is a bloody danger!

Purplewithred · 10/08/2020 23:32

I reported pil anonymously on the dvla website. He had to be retested and had his licence removed, thank goodness.

TrainspottingWelsh · 10/08/2020 23:32

Yanbu, but I don't think testing every 10yrs is any use whatsoever.
It would be cheaper and safer to introduce some form of test for driving reaction times, risk assessment etc from the age of 70, say every 5yrs up till 80, and then at increasingly regular intervals, with the right to call back for tests at shorter intervals for anyone that shows signs their ability may decline more rapidly than average. Accompanied by regular eye tests of course.

I'd also make it a criminal offence to fail to report concerns that an elderly driver is unsafe.

AmICrazyorWhat2 · 10/08/2020 23:33

I have a relative in her 80’s who’s sensibly given up driving. Her eyesight is poor and I was terrified being in a car with her early last year- we only went a couple of miles and she could barely keep in her lane.

Luckily she’s accepted that she can’t drive anymore and has a bus stop around the corner
(and can afford a taxi if necessary).

Wankpuffin · 10/08/2020 23:41

My dad is 86 and over the past 10 years has turned into the most awful driver. He slows down for green traffic lights incase they are about to change, goes at 5mph around roundabouts. I won’t go in a car with him anymore, the amount of times people have almost driven into the back of him when he’s done those things is terrifying. He won’t ever give up driving though. It’s his independence.

I just hope when he does have a crash it’s only himself he hurts/kills and no one else.

Alwaysinpain · 11/08/2020 00:58

@veewee

I completely agree that it should be every 10 years from passing.

One of my neighbours is in her 50's, she's had operations on both of her retinas, can 'only see shapes' (in her own words) & still drives! I know she has been reported quite a few times, but nothing has been done! She is a bloody danger!

There's a form you can fill out on DVLA website. That person then has to see an Optician for a special DVLA eye test to PROVE capability to see sufficiently. I know it works as I reported a relative and this is what happened
CherryValanc · 11/08/2020 06:58

In a money-has-no-object world you could have cameras there could be cameras like the speed cameras. That record the registration number of people that drive badly (erratic speed, don't signal and so on). After a set number of offence the driver has to be retested- regardless of age.

There's probably a few flaws to this master plan and I think there might be a loads of few complaints about Nanny State.

Yes there are certainly older drivers who no longer can drive safely. But there is a way to report them. Not sure about them having to retest in the sense of having to take a full standard driving test though, there's a lot more on the test than there used to be. Maybe a more basic one - takes into account reaction time and vision - part of the three year reapply cost.

(I'm not sure if there is a cost or the process of the three-year licence in the uk by the way. I'm in Ireland where everyone reapplies every 10 years and pays €55 to do so. Over 70s need a fitness to drive cert from a doctor for their three-year licence and pay €35. (If your licence expires you have to pass a theory test before reapplying I believe.))

chomalungma · 11/08/2020 07:08

Most road fatalities involve drivers under the age of 25

I wonder how that relates to the relative proportion of the number of drivers in those age groups?

Reaction times do slow down though - and at high speed, it doesn't take much for something awful to happen.

startrek90 · 11/08/2020 07:11

YANBU, younger drivers have limits now on what they are allowed to do (and rightly so!) if it's ok to put additional requirements on younger drivers it's ok for elderly ones. My sisters school friend was killed by a 75 year old man who really shouldn't have been on the road. He had bad eyesight and slow reflexes. Turns out he didn't see the schoolkids on the pavement and accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the brake and veered directly into my sisters friend. The poor boy was only 12. He got a 4 year suspended sentence because of his age.

No one believes that the elderly man meant to hurt someone but he did. His family said he was a stubborn man and he refused to listen when told it was time to stop driving. I do understand the loss of independence but at some point you have to consider other people around you. A car in the wrong hands is a very dangerous weapon.

Dollywilde · 11/08/2020 07:16

Haven’t thought this idea through at all and there are obviously civil liberty arguments against, but now we have these ‘black boxes’ in cars (and young drivers can install them to lower their premiums) could we not install them similarly for older drivers of 70 and above, maybe?

AuntieStella · 11/08/2020 07:19

I wonder how that relates to the relative proportion of the number of drivers in those age groups?

Higher than you'd think - when you consider him eyewateringly height insurance premiums are (pricing many off the roads)

The groups which insurers make most expensive are the riskiest ones - and no-one is more hard-nosed than they are!