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?

The point is that elderly drivers are MORE LIKELY to not be fit to drive though…..

Or are you disputing that?

I’d rather they did more about young drivers. They are horrendous around here.

The point is that ANY AGE driver is dangerous if they are not fit to drive.

Or are you disputing that?

Well, yes, but I'm discussing ELDERLY in this thread.

sorry that's so difficult for you to understand. Perhaps you feel a bit triggered and recognise you shouldn't be driving?

👏🏼 👏🏼

I knew it would rile the elderly driver apologists. It's not hard to grasp is it!

I went on a speed awareness course a while ago (doing 53 in a 50mph traffic zone so completely missed it) and out of the 20 or so people that were there, most were men between I'd say 50 and 65. No elderly, no young people. Certainly a driving refresher course should be available for those who just want to brush up, or those who have been ordered to. It should also count as a meaningful discount on insurance.

I'm disputing that. Younger drivers are more likely to be unfit to drive through drugs or drink. So many of them think it's acceptable to smoke cannabis then get behind the wheel of a car

We don't have the resources for mass retesting. Most older people recognise when they're no longer safe to drive. You can't extrapolate from one incident that involved an older driver.

A much better suggestion would be compulsory eyesight tests for older drivers. That's where a lot of the problem lays.

My mother continued driving even though there were excellent free buses virtually from her door.
She was stubborn and of the "nobody's going to tell me what to do mindset"

So not all elderly drivers carry on because there isn't suitable public transport

As a PP linked, the statistics (Killed/seriously injured per billion miles driven shown here) speak for themselves. The problem is not self-limiting. Inexperienced drivers are a measurably high risk but this very quickly drops off with gaining experience- there would be no point banning them as they would never improve. This is reflected in insurance premiums.

Older drivers are a different sort of problem but still a real one. Over 75/80 there is also a measurable increase in KSIs. It doesn't mean every elderly driver is unsafe but I see no reason not to test and to co-ordinate with medical records when people's eyesight, reaction times, cognition and physical abiltiy (e.g. being able to look over shoulder) are not up to handling a car safely in traffic.

I see this first hand, driving with my 20 year old son or 80 year old dad. My son is improving but my dad is getting worse.

Also in other sectors, minor accidents are reported because they are a precursor to more serious ones and preventative measures can be put in place. So for example, anyone who has a minor accident/scrape serious enough to involve police could have at least a basic cross-check to their medical records that they don't have a health issue affecting driving. Just like having a routine breath test. It would be a PITA but it would make us all safer.

That unfitness you describe isn’t something set in stone.

Very different frim the slow reaction linked to old age that will always be there.
Vs smoking cannabis and you’re unfit fir a day and then you’re ok

The issue is not whether other groups can be unfit to drive, for various reasons. It’s the fact getting old can certainly make people unfit to drive forever.
The same way let’s say that getting blind in your 20s also makes you unfit to drive fir the rest kf your life.

Honestly I'm way more worried about my kids getting hit by an elderly driver than a youngster.
Young drivers cause more accidents on motorways. Elderly are far more likely to hit them when we're walking through a carpark or just along the pavement. I have heard of SO MANY instances like that. Younger drivers who drink alcohol (actually this is more common with middle aged in my experience) or who drive under the influence of drugs should absolutely get a lifetime ban. But this tends to happen more at night when kids aren't likely to be out.

@NotMeNoNo very good point about small accident/incident pointing towards an increase risk of severe accidents.

Yeah drug driving is pretty much all done by young people. And driving while too tired/distracted - new parents. There are way bigger problems on the roads than older drivers and it would be sledgehammer cracking a nut to roll out some mandatory regular re-test, especially when technological advances and driver reporting schemes are making cars and roads safer all round and are smoothing over a lot of the difficulties to do with capabilities.

I fully agree with you . I am in my late 70 s and have just passed my advanced driving test with 98 per cent pass rate . I think as always dependant on the driver and how good they are . Some 17 to 20 year old are very dangerous in very large BMW s your not age bashing like all of us some are ok some not

Youre totally right.
And as people getting older means Theyre highly likely to become unfit to drive (not just causing death) on a long term basis, checks should be in place.
Id argue that for anyone who has some health issues that could impact their driving too.

Its great we agree :)

This is probably because older drivers don't tend to drive too fast, and younger drivers probably break the speed limit more severely and don't get to go on the course.

Let us accept that some people are dangerous or crap drivers, whatever age range they happen to be in.

Some concerns have been expressed about the cost or difficulty of setting up structures to ensure that elderly drivers still have capacity to drive.

At least when it comes to vision, I think it would be comparatively simple to require current eye test and specs prescription info to be sent to the DVLA after age 70.
Practically all elders have eye tests already and it could become their responsibility to send in their own info.
I am approaching 70 myself and would be quite happy to do this.

My BIL, mid eighties, was driving dangerously, eg, with the passenger door open. The entire family thought he should not be driving, but they didn't want to upset him (he was well-off)! Sometimes his legs would 'give way' and he'd lean on the wall and slump to the ground. I found out that you can report an impaired driver online, and I did it. He got a letter (I didn't see it) requesting all sorts of details and documents which were, apparently, too much of a faff to provide.There was no more driving. So although elderly drivers won't be tested en masse as routine, if you know of such an individual you absolutely can do something about it. Even if my BIL had found all the papers needed, he knew he would never have been able to pass the physical exam which would also have been required, and so that was that. Go to DVLA / 'report impaired driver'.

I totally agree. I actually lied to my DM and hid her keys as I could tell she wasn’t right and wasn’t safe to drive. Nobody would listen to me not even the gp. She was a danger to herself and others . The signs were subtle at first but her reactions were not good and her awareness too. I didn’t realise at the time but it was the start of dementia.

When nobody took any notice I lied to her I said I’d had a letter and that she wasn’t allowed to drive anymore. I took the keys and a few weeks later persuaded her to sell her car. I took her to all appts etc from the day I took the keys or organised a taxi.

I've got children in their mid thirties that have more points and higher insurance premiums than I do.

YABU

If there was a political will to sort this out it would be quite straightforward. You don't need to subject people to additional road testing at all. These days we have fabulous simulators available which can score people's driving skills and reactions without prejudice.

Firstly the driving age was set at 17 when people left school at 14. The roads are over crowded and most people stay in education until 21. Stats show that teens are the most dangerous group of drivers so start by increasing the minimum age to 20. Then bring in the range of measures that have recently been in the news like limiting the engine size a new driver can have, limiting passengers (I think you should be allowed one passenger in the front, but no rear seat passengers for a period of time), setting curfews.

Then bring in mandatory testing for everyone else on simulators, starting with those aged 80+ and anyone living in the UK and driving on a foreign licence, working down to 20.

Plus "Oi blue fiesta in the middle lane move over!" signs.

our local drivers like to drive into the shops, two have been driven into in as many weeks

This is an extract from an article on the parliament website "We should acknowledge that, for many young people, learning to drive is a significant milestone and a source of immense pride. But it is one that exposes them to significant risk. Men aged 17 to 25 have higher rates of fatal road collisions than almost any other age group—they are second only to over-85s"
So actually according to this, over 85s are the most dangerous group. And when I think about dangerous elderly drivers this is who I'm talking about. Not the 67 year old newly retired lady. The VERY elderly.

My partner had a old driver pull out in front of him, blissfully unaware as she munched on a plum.

Old codger was his mother. She's 79.

In 6 months alone she has hit a bollard twice bursting a tyre and hit a cars wing mirror...not a major thing but someone was in car and went ape as she didn't stop.

I've been with her on a straight bit of road with revs at 6000 as she was in second gear at 45 mph. Pulls onto roundabouts when she should stop and stops when she should go.

Apparently I'm at fault for saying anything as she used to drive miles for a living!