AIBU to think drivers (more so elderly) need to be retested?

[ayonoosh]

I know I'll probably get lumped with being ageist here. I want to preface I think all drivers should be tested after perhaps 10 years but once at retirement age or 70s, every few years?

I live in a town that's predominantly one way. In the past 7 days I have seen 2 elderly drivers run red lights. One elderly driver go the wrong way up a very well signed street, with other drivers beeping and flashing and they just kept going, one elderly driver driving on the opposite side of the road going onto a short duel carriage way (!!) and an elderly driver drive down the middle of the bollards in Tesco.

this isn't an unusual amount of it too, there are so many posts on the local community pages with cars and registrations and people posting about it. It is so incredibly dangerous. We have a uni in town too and have our fair share of young drivers, I do see them hurtling around town at stupid speeds but they aren't as common as the elderly drivers reported.

I know young drivers cause more crashes, but elderly people tend to have low mileage bias, I think if they drove mile for mile the stats may differ. Elderly drivers responsible for deaths have increased by 42% in the last decade.

AIBU to think mandatory testing for all, especially for elderly should be implemented? I know the money, time, stubbornness, etc etc make it unrealistic, and there are terrible drivers of all ages of course. But if age related reaction times are something that doesn't apply to you, then surely it's a tick box activity and back to driving?

im seeing increasingly more elderly pootling at 50 in the middle lane on the M25, as well as stupid taxi drivers doing it too. they ought to be retested too.

what's everyone's thoughts?

Surely dashcams are picking up this bad driving and it’s being reported?

They make up a proportion of the 25% who are unfit to hold a licence, I think.

A large congestion charge for cars taking children to and from schools, with exemptions where SEN children or genuine long distances are concerned, would reduce the school issue, together with real penalties for some of things you see.

There's s system that should extend to the elderly, I had to surrender my licence on medical grounds following brain surgery. At the end of the 6 months, I had to prove that I was medically safe to drive and for it to be evidenced by my consultant. All licences could be suspended at a certain age and only given back on medical advise.

I followed an elderly chap onto the motorway last night, traffic we were joining was 70/90 mph, he joined at 30 mph and all the cars stuck behind him were all placed in danger as a result.

Well they evidently are causing issues on the roads, as their insurance and the stats show.

again, where are the people screaming 'ageist' to us posters for the testing, when posters are being blatantly ageist to the youngsters?

elderly drivers are part of the problem whether you're in denial or not.

Yep! Typical Mumsnet ay!

I have reported many drivers via dash cam, never to be heard again.
one of them an elderly neighbour, who still pootles around town at 5mph driving into boards and skipping red lights

Generally on MN elderly is seen as 60+. OP seems to think 67 is elderly.

Stats are great for recording what has happened, but they're not going to take into account the near misses that were only near misses because of other people's observations and avertive actions.
They may also be deficient on minor incidents where the driver left the scene without leaving a record (driver may not be aware or too scared to declare for fear of losing their licence)

There is significant scope for under reporting and under estimating the risk level in this demographic.
Data for young/ inexperienced drivers is more likely to present an accurate picture because of the type of incidents that they tend to be involved in.

Black boxes have their uses at calming down over-confident, inexperienced drivers. Maybe they could be useful for gathering data about older drivers where there are concerns about reactions and cognitive abilities affecting safe control of a vehicle.

And anyone with baby brain or menopause dizzyness

This is actually a brilliant idea. Offer cheaper car insurance to older drivers who agree to a black box in the same way they do to younger drivers.

No I don't?

you can have a very young 70 year old and a very elderly 70 year old.

but 67 isn't middle aged, is it? Even 50 isn't technically middle aged as most people don't live to 100..

Elderly can have a yearly mot with gp maybe it could be incorporated with tgat. As it’s more physical/ mental capacity

You said testing needs to start at retirement age

Yes that would be good! At least the 'near misses' and their general driving will be recorded, and their insurance altered accordingly. Any serious or worrying driving discipline should go straight to the DVLA.

Maybe all drivers should have a black box linked to their insurance

I saw a driver the other day driving at top speed in and out of bollards in the middle of the road, the bollards that you use to help cross the road, so driver was half on the wrong side of the road, a black box would stop that, no idea how old it was as it was too fast and quite shocking.

Oh come on!
You might not think elderly drivers should be subject to tests to ensure they are fit for driving, but to deny there are any issues with people like my dad who was deaf, unable to walk and had little shoulder movement behind the wheel is just daft.
If a 17-year-old presented for a driving tests similarly disabled, do you think they would be allowed behind the wheel with no adaptations?

I have commented on threads like this before, it’s very unfair that all the onus on getting an older driver off the road usually sits with their adult DCs, already burdened with caring or sorting out caring and with big potential emotional repercussions if they do make the call or take away the keys.

I don’t think people need to resit their physical test, but it should be perfectly possible to do an on screen reflex test for say the over 80s to begin with at the same time as they are getting their eyesight checked out. If they fail that then they could have the option of either stopping driving or paying to resit their driving test.

Also no waiting. As noticed with a couple of schools around here, they park their cars outside the school, then someone picks the parent up, leaving the car parked outside the school all day. Then they get dropped off again about 15 mins before the schools finish.

No cars parked in the area this week as on holiday.

I think 70 is a bit young for retesting, but don't disagree with the concept. 80 is a more reasonable age for a second test, then every 3/5 years. I don't think it should be charged for, as some elderly drivers would struggle to pay the fee (is it around £50?).

I think full retests for everyone would be too disruptive, even it were logistically possible. People make decisions about jobs and where they live based in ability to drive and so lives could be upended based on a daft mistake or a bad day. Perhaps a mandatory course of some kind or a set of refresher lessons every few years that weren't pass/fail unless you were completely horrendous! Probably still not logistically doabe though at the moment.

I think there should be restrictions on young drivers. Engine size as mentioned by someone else is a good idea. I also think restrictions on having passengers. Maybe none to start with, them max of one for a while. I think a lot of accidents probably happen in cars packed with friends, showing off or in high spirits and distracted.

Elderly probably do need some sort of retest at some point. Perhaps it could be a scaled down version.

I would imagine black box tech will evolve to be useful in some way - could become mandatory and flag up dangerous driving behaviours?

In my family there’s 2 with Alzheimer’s and 1 with Parkinson’s driving around/driving into things.

Given how hard it is for new drivers to get a test at all these days (several months round here), adding mandatory retests is not feasible.

I'd prefer to see a system where the minimum driving age is raised to 25 or 30 as so many injuries and deaths involve younger drivers.

I'd also limit the number of miles a person can drive in a year to maybe 2000 miles per person. This would reduce the amount of vehicles on the road and encourage people to use public transport (like trains) for longer journeys and for regular short ones. Exemptions could be made for drivers of emergency vehicles (eg ambulances, fire engines) and perhaps lorry drivers for transporting essential goods (such as food). Non-drivers could give their mileage allowance to relatives or sell them through an online marketplace.

We could go further and not allow people to drive until they've lived here legally and been citizens for at least thirty years. This would stop the net million aditional people per year being able to drive (I know some of them are children, but they would be able to drive when they reach 17 under the present system).

I would make penalties for drink-driving, drug-driving and driving without insurance much stiffer. You should lose your licence and never be able to regain it if convicted of these types of offences. Further, driving without a valid licence should normally result in a custodial sentence of five to ten years minimum.

I'd also make dashcams mandatory.

I would love it if my 93 Yr old Dad had to take a competency test. His eyes are OK, it's the reaction times and spatial awareness as others have said. He's already put my Stepmum in hospital for 2 weeks/6 months rehab, and I'm worried he's going to hurt someone or worse in one of his many other prangs since then. It's not ageist, it's a reasonable response to an ageing population when drivers are only yeated once, typically in their 20s.

Ah yes. The absolute bane of my life. I drive 500 ish miles a week, up and down the country and every single bloody time it’s some old coffin dodger in a Honda Jazz or a Hyundai i10 or something equally resembling a small Diet Coke can, absolutely zero awareness of anything going on around them, sometimes driving along for miles with the indicators on or the wipers on in dry sunny weather, completely oblivious. Think the speed limit on every single road in the country is 38. 30? 38. 40? 38. 60? You guessed it, he’s sat pissing me off at 38 completely unaware I’m even behind him (and my SUV is NOT small). Smashing their cars up pavements half in half out the road at a ridiculous angle, always in my way at 7am slamming the brakes on when a car is travelling on the opposite side of the road because they have got absolutely zero spatial awareness and eyesight equivalent to that of a goldfish. Why are you on the road at 7am you’re 85 what could you possibly have to do at 7am on a Tuesday morning?! Absolute fuckers