Elderly drivers should be tested

[HeidiHoNeighbour]

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.

Maybe we should insist on the black boxes that teenagers use over a certain age? This will check driving speed etc.

Last week an elderly woman came straight at me on a roundabout. She literally turned right on the roundabout. It’s been there a year or so, so maybe she didn’t realise the road layout had changed. I beeped more to let others know and everyone just stopped and let her past.

She was gesturing to me as if I was in the wrong. I’m still not sure she ever realised she had driven the wrong way around a roundabout. I had my 3 year old and my 8 month old in the car with me. I was too shaken to get her plates.

If you have a family member who shouldn’t be driving and you don’t take their keys from them and report. You may literally have someone’s blood on your hands. We ALL have to take responsibility, we can’t use the excuse “ I’m waiting for my mum, sister, brother, partner etc to tell them”.

@wankpuffin instead of just 'hoping', you need to actively report him to the DVLA, before lives are lost. There is no reason not to do this. He's an absolute danger.

I think retesting every 5 years for everyone should be the way ahead. It’s 15 years since I passed my test and I’m dam sure I couldn’t pass it again tomorrow. And the rules and the roads change! Ask 10 people what to do at a pelican crossing and you’ll get 10 different answers. I’m so thankful for the new adverts about giving cyclists appropriate passing distance because I know at least one person who insists you can pass with an arms length - same as a car! And drivers would have to pay to resit the test, same as MOT’s and insurance to make sure everyone is safe.
I love my dash cam so I can confirm everything that’s happened.

[quote RedHelenB]@Wankpuffin from your description your Dad sounds fine. You should anticipate that lights will change.[/quote]
There’s anticipating and there is slowing almost to a stop when approaching a green light with other cars behind you having to slam their breaks on though. There’s a huge difference!

What is all this ‘breaking’ that people are doing while driving? 😕

Yes I think they should be tested. Eyesight, physical ability and reaction time declines with age. As a driver I've had lots of near misses with elderly drivers and none with anyone young that I can think of. It's usually things like pulling out of side roads and reversing out of parking bays without looking. My DH was shaken up by a very near miss with an elderly man who apologised and explained it was because he only had use of one leg! A man lost his leg in my town centre a while ago when he was crushed by an elderly driver who pressed the wrong pedal and reversed at speed out of a disabled bay in a pedestrianised area.
Sadly I think many drive well beyond when it is safe to do so because they don't want to lose their independence, which is understandable, but shouldn't trump the safety of everyone else.

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.

This was like mum, with additional going through red lights - she was never a great driver but as she got older just seemed oblivious to her surroundings. I tried to talked to her about it but she just got upset and didn't want to stop. So I said I'd pay for advanced driving lessons for her, but she cried and left the room. Physical tests are beside the point for people like this, but there is currently no way to either get them off the road or make them improve.

@HeidiHoNeighbour Apologies, thought you meant ten year after a certain age, and it was the Edinburgh accident which my friend witnessed.

However, I still don't think it's a viable option due to how quickly people can deteriorate. I think that more GPs and family should be reporting to DVLA. I lost my licence for medical reasons and three people reported me - I didn't even attempt to drive and did hand my licence in but they all notified the DVLA.

I have a friend who has the same condition I have who can't drive but didn't disclose it. She was given a minibus licence at one stage.... I did report her and her licence was revoked. She drove her own car without a licence for ages though afterwards and there was nothing we could do about it. Didn't matter how many times it was reported nothing happened.

@MrsGoggings85 you equally sound like a bit of a dick, also "work with the police"... a police officer? Just curious.

Older people also have restrictions placed on them too, it's not all a free for all on the road, but you would know that if you were a police officer!

For those of you who aren't sure about elderly relatives, we got my grandpa to do a driving assessment. They judge if you are still safe, or if mobility aids can improve things. Ann objective person outside the family saying "you need to stop driving" can help.

We asked my grandpa's gp to recommend him for it and it was free too.

YANBU. My own DGF drove me places a few times and I was absolutely on edge. Responses were delayed and use of mirrors/signals poor.

I was also conscious that he could have had a stroke or heart attack at any given time. He knew he was at risk of those things. Would still use A roads and even motorways occasionally.

When he did pass, very sadly from a massive stroke, he had been driving earlier in the day. I was a teenager at the time so not my place to be reporting his driving officially, but I did bring it up with mum and aunties, they worried about the independence issue.

@Nannewnannew

What is all this ‘breaking’ that people are doing while driving? 😕

I know, it really makes you value those people’s opinions doesn’t it!

For what it’s worth around here it’s young people who speed up and down the road, it was a young person who smashed my car to bits one night outside my house, and ditto a neighbour’s a couple of years later, it’s young people who speed on the local hill and end up in the field and since the nursery opened up the road it’s like the fucking whacky races every bloody morning and a pedestrian has been injured. And statistically young people cause and die in more traffic collisions.

At the very least renewals for older drivers should have to be accompanied by a recent optician examination to confirm the person still has the ocular capacity to drive.

Fairly low cost to administer but would immediately root out a substantial number of people with eyesight so poor that driving is a dangerous idea.

There is no question that young drivers are the most dangerous by a long shot, the stats are quite clear. Older drivers do need properly reassessing. My DHs eldest brother has had numerous accidents over the years, most recently writing off a motability car when pulling out of a junction. We have reported him but nothing seems to happen! A retest for everybody every 10 years would be a good idea, some folk never even look at a highway code after passing their test.

Meant to give the link: www.olderdrivers.org.uk/driver-assessment/find-a-driver-assessment/

jeez,
first the virus, stay indoors
now you want to take away any remaining freedom.

It should start from the age you can get a free bus pass.

Who would pay for the retests? The elderly people, surely.

It should start from the age you can get a free bus pass

A free bus pass is useless around here. There aren't any busses.

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?

Now THAT is brilliant idea!

Love how there are stories of all these dreadful older drivers. Bet they would be still outnumbered by stories of younger speedsters and dangerous overtakers though.

My car was written off by a lady in her late 70s who muddled the brake and the accelerator. Instead of stopping at a junction she accelerated through it onto a dual carriage way and hit us. I was injured as were the 3 kids in my car. The police screwed up the investigation and decided not to prosecute. The woman is still driving. She persisted throughout the insurance claim that she wasn't at fault (despite her insurers accepting 100% liability) and that it was my fault because she didn't see me. I spoke to her son and pleaded with him to get her to stop driving. He said he couldn't because it kept her independant. DVLA can't do anything because she doesn't have a medical condition that would allow them to remove her licence.

Agree everyone should be re-tested after a set number of years. Driving test standards are completely different to how they were say 10, 20, 30 years ago. And if you're still a competent driver then you shouldn't have a problem with it. And if you can't pass it you shouldn't be on the road anyway.

I agree that older drivers should be re tested on a regular basis.The problem is ATM that older drivers can indeed self certify ,as above PP says re her dad .We had a similar experience with an elderly Uncle as well. Many older people (esp chaps!)seem to see loss of their licence as a personal affront to their freedoms,and will robustly refuse to accept that their driving skills aint what they used to be!

Personally I think everyone should be re-tested every 10 years. Driving standards across the board are awful.

people are tested, pass their test and it doesnt stop their boy racing, bad driving