To think that too many people are in denial that they should not drive?

[Onomatofear]

I hear about countless examples of elderly people or people with health problems getting behind the wheel of a car when they shouldn't be. Why do they do it?

I remember my dh's granddad doing it. Now it's my dad. He's 78 and can barely walk without falling over and he refuses to accept that he shouldn't be on the road. About 6 months ago, he accidentally drove over a pedestrian island thinking it was an actual road. I pointed out to my mum that him being old wouldn't count as a defence. She still gets in the car with him(!)

And before you say why don't I report him, it's easy to say but I've reported someone before for the same sort of thing and he figured out it was me and went mad at me. It's even more difficult to report your own parent.

Excellent post. I'd add people on medication that affects their driving - sometimes they don't even realise until someone else tells them.

People who are simply bad at it because they lack the aptitude, patience and focus to do something so potentially dangerous they shouldn't pass their test in those circumstances but somehow they do!

During the eye test, the optician looks out for cataracts which are common in the over 60s and cause issues for drivers, especially at night

They do, but the NHS won't fix them until they've got really bad and the waiting list can be months. Costs about £3000 PER EYE to do privately.

An older friend of mine keeps getting told not to drive by her bossy daughter - I have been driven by both mother and daughter and feel much safer with the mother - the daughter gets distracted by what other drivers are doing and shouts at them

My FIL just voluntarily gave up driving. He only used to drive to be able to take MIL to Dr appts and things but he said he just didn’t feel that his reactions were as quick as they needed to be. They’ve found that the hospital where MIL has to go for regular treatment for her eyes will come and pick them up and bring them home, he sold his car for £10k and between buses and taxis he says he feels very free now without the pressure of it hanging over him.

The trouble is, in many rural amd semi rural areas the roads aren't designed for buses and other large vehicles, they were literally designed for horses and carts. It would take a lot of extensive roadworks to widen the roads to make them suitable for buses, which would cause a myriad of issues environmentally, as there tends to be a lot of wildlife in such areas and doing these works would harm it. And many of the "locals" would (quite understandably) object to it.
One way around this would be some sort of public funded taxi or carpool service for the elderly and disabled in these areas.

I think a lot of areas do have this @OverheardInLidl . My parents live quite rurally and there is a mini bus that comes and takes people to various places and it was the same when I lived in Surrey, the little Hoppa bus I would see all the time.
I do agree with a poster up thread though - planning for the future before you need to us very sensible. My in laws have done this very well whereas my parents are completely head in the sand about aging (despite being 78) because at the moment they are in full health and have a busier social life than I do. My dad still drives a sports car at track days!

Because this thread happens to be about the OP's father who falls into the "elderly" category. If you want to start a thread about boy racers, I'll happily support passenger bans for young drivers and graduated driving licences.

One way around this would be some sort of public funded taxi or carpool service for the elderly and disabled in these areas.

Given that councils are already being bankrupted by things like SEN transport, the odds that there is going to be money for this kind of thing is zero.

People need to show common sense about where to grow old. Growing old in the countryside is a bad idea unless you have a good social network willing to help you out for free, or are wealthy enough to afford lots of taxis, Ubers and hired drivers. I know two very wealthy guys in their 70s who live rurally - if/when they lose the ability to drive, they'll just hire a live-in help who can drive, most likely.

There is a severe shortage of driving test slots in the UK at the mo, partly because of weird system issues that result in half the slots being hoovered up by bots and then resold at scalp prices. If we are going to test people regularly, or even just once when they reach at a certain age, it's going to be important to increase slots and testing facilities, and also create booking systems where people have to input personal details such as a national insurance number to stop scalping.

Because of COVID lockdowns and test delays, sons theory ran out so redid it. Eight months wait for practical test, examiners strikes.

There's no way they'll ever cope with retesting pensioners.

There could be a community funded minibus, like there are community village shops, with volunteer drivers. But hang on, they are likely to be retired so obviously not fit to be on the roads.

Sure, something community-funded would make sense; local people can club together and sort out some small buses at times when everyone wants to use it.

In Japan there have been some innovative options, like working in conjunction with the vehicles that deliver post and deliver food to the local shop; people are informed of the times of the deliveries and can get seats into town when the vehicle has made its delivery and is doing its return journey empty. Japan Post has got involved with this; it is a good scheme, although obviously only really suitable for retired people who do not have a lot going on and are able to plan their day around this kind of vehicle schedule.

My point was that anything funded by the public purse is unlikely to be much of an option, going forward, given the state of public finances. Even in Japan, which has really good public transport in cities, there is little PT in the countryside. PT just inherently doesn't work well in rural areas.

I don't think anyone on here was saying that anyone over standard retirement age can't drive, were they? Only that some people may develop health issues at some point.

In London there is already Taxicard for elderly/disabled people, offering massively subsidised taxis. It used to work well but has got overloaded and less reliable. There is also Dial-a-Ride, I don't know if that is national or not. Over 60s in London have free travel on public transport. Hospitals provide transport services. In the rural area we often visit, there is a voluntary service giving lifts to elderly/disabled people to appointments etc. it's not like there's nothing available but it's not the same as having your own car outside your front door. People have to accept change and, as many have said, move in good time to somewhere with nearby services.

My mum’s the same. I kept saying to her that I knew she couldn’t see properly, to the point that I refused to accept lifts from her. Anyway, she finally had her second cataract done and she finally admitted that she hadn’t been able to see very well. I think she’d been expecting us to be really surprised but we just shrugged and said ‘we already knew that’ 🤷‍♀️

While I agree with people moving in good time to an area with better public transport links, the trouble is that the effects of ageing tend to creep up and people often don't realise while it's happening. It's a hard thing for a lot of elderly people to accept that they simply cannot do all the things they are used to doing anymore. Or they might think "well, I'm OK now, I'll stop when the time comes" and don't realise it actually has until its too late.

Sounds like he got the accelerator and brake pedals mixed up. I hope he stopped driving after this.

17 year old, just passed his test, mixed up accelerator and brake pedals and rammed the car in front of him in a stationary queue of traffic. According to a witness he'd been "driving like a lunatic" before that.

Young drivers cause more accidents than anyone under 80 - going to take them off the road too? Young drivers do less mileage than older drivers, some of the comments here are rubbish. www.statista.com/statistics/376604/driving-distance-in-england-uk-by-age-and-gender/

I feel for you...... My mum is 81 and did not pass her test until later in life.

She walks nearly doubled over
Is on so much morphine it would slay a cow
Was always a bad driver but now is even worse and can barely see over the dash board
Never uses her mirrors
Hits the kerb a lot
Gets flustered and in a panic
Has bashed the car so many times.....

What have I done?

1. Asked her hospital consultant to tell her not to drive - the hospital pharmacy merely wrote a letter telling her to consider with the amount of opiates she is taking if she would pass a drug drive test. She ignored the letter telling us that they didn't tell her not to drive.

1. I've reported her to the DVLA 4 times - each time they send her a form that she fills in and sends back.

1. I've reported her to the local police on 111 - no action

1. I took her keys and left her thinking she lost them - she ordered a new set.

1. I reported her to motability who give her the car and without a doctors letter they can't action my report and even then it would not be anonymous - as its a motability car, I have no right to just remove the car from her.

1. I have asked her GP to tell her not to drive but technically arthritis and old age are not medical reasons for not driving and he won't make a judgement on her driving

1. I've spoken to her at length about stopping driving - she says no one is going to stop her from driving, she'll drive if she wants and if anything is written to her she'll claim she never got the letter. I know for a fact she has shredded the letter the pharmacy sent her.

I refuse to get into the car with her.

However, for those saying just use a taxi. She takes nearly 40 minutes to get out of the house and into the car - no taxi is willingly going to wait that long. Once she gives up driving she literally will be housebound (I live 350 miles away and am the only family she has left as I'm an only child).

I don't know if you've done this already, but it might be worth asking her if she thinks she could cope with a prison sentence at her age, which is exactly what would happen if she's involved in an accident and convicted for driving whilst on morphine. I'm sure the leaflet in her medicine pack clearly says "do not drive or operate machinery".

My mum and her brother simply took my grandfather’s keys away and sold his car (helps that my grandfather and uncle owned a garage together at the time). If you don’t want to report then you need to stage an intervention. Nobody will ever give up their independence willingly.

Not true everywhere. My reasonably mild cataract was diagnosed by my optician last June. I had a lens replacement in August. My health trust is buying in services from a private clinic. The whole thing was very speedy and efficient even though my cataract wasn’t impairing my sight to any great extent. I could still pass the eye test required for driving.

I don't give a shit, frankly. If you are not safe to drive you are not safe to drive. I'm in favour of mandatory retesting every ten years, increasing to every five years after the age of sixty.

I hate that people get away with racking up large numbers of points on their licence because they claim hardship when it comes to court. Driving is a privilege, not a right. It should never be prioritised above the risk that someone might kill a pedestrian.

Not just older people either, so many people of all ages are utterly oblivious to what goes on around them on the roads, what signs mean, what road markings mean etc.

Postbuses used to be a thing in the UK. Last one ran in 2017.

The leaflet actually says- May cause drowsiness, if affected do not drive or operate machinery.

She doesn't believe it makes her drowsy so therefore it doesn't apply./