To think people over 80 should not drive

[TorridAntelope]

I don't care how bright and sparky they are, the stats show they are dangerous

There are too many cars/drivers on the roads, many of whom are not safe to be driving. I'd prefer they raise the age where you can legally drive and would hope that would reduce the number of driving-related deaths.

My dad is still driving at 80. Admittedly not very far or very often but still does his weekly shop etc.
He won't drive anywhere new or too far away now.I think he finds driving tiring now so may give up soon.
I think younger drivers are worse than older people. Couple of accidents near us which have resulted in teenagers dying in car accidents.

Yet another Poster with an animal
name that puts up a frothy OP and never returns. Yawn.

Don't waste your time folks.

I've been driving for over 50 years and I have tried automatic and can't get on with them. I recently tried again in an industrial estate and I'm not happy. I will pay for lessons

What is it you don’t get on with? Automatic is much easier than manual - you just have to pretend your left foot is stuck to the floor so you don’t try to change gear.

Can we also ban under 25s too, as well as those MNers with no comprehension of the interpretation of statistics?

Should make the roads nice and empty, at least!

I don't find it easier and my left foot automatically tries to get in the way. It's 50+ years of muscle memory to unlearn

The events of a couple of weeks ago in Bolton where a driver of a souped up SEAT was responsible for the deaths of two of his passengers, the innocent driver of a taxi and the injuries suffered by his passengers made me think that we should ban the 'modification' of regular cars to make them attractive to the boy racers, our roads should not be used as race tracks.

Sorry, I don’t think you understand enough about dementia/Alzheimer’s to say this.

My husband was cleared for driving by NHS, DVLA and Insurance, for 6 years after his initial Alzheimer’s diagnosis. He drove, safely, for thousands of miles/kilometres and was immediately cognisant of driving on the right as soon as we left the ferry in Spain and France then back on the left on our return. He remembered the ‘priorité à droite’ law and automatic 50K speed limits without signs in towns and villages.

Hadn’t got a clue what he’d had for breakfast but his ‘muscle memory’ for driving was fine.

Not all NHS areas have the same processes and screenings. He was never scanned by the NHS.

Every Alzheimer's suffer is different.

Yes yes young men are the worst but everyone starts young. Everyone is inexperienced at the start. More controls could be implemented for the young but you can’t compare the two groups as inexperience is part of the journey that’s unavoidable

the elderly are the second biggest group fir accidents and in contrast to the young, the elderly continue to get worse. There has to be something put in place as many old people have no intention of ever voluntarily stopping.

It really is not designed to test reaction time at all. It's a test for glaucoma! Your optician made a passing comment, that's all.

Only just seen this. Ignore my other comment!

According to @Badbadbunny, whose son works in the field, the elderly actually have more accidents per mile and per journey than young men, which I didn't know. The 'young men' or 'young people' groups will also be heavily skewed by a minority who make v foolish decisions, something which won't apply to the majority. As you say, those who are over excited and do foolish things when they are 20, will likely calm down with age. By contrast, the elderly's abilities will deteriorate gradually. In my experience, quite a lot of older people also tend to be poor judges of their capabilities. This certainly does not apply to everyone. I had one much older friend who stopped driving as soon as she had a diagnosis of dementia made, even though it was v mild at this stage. She was a rather exceptional person though.

If that were the case premiums for elderly drivers would be higher than those for young men and they’re not. Equally the older driver group will be skewed by the minority of bad drivers in the same way.

The elderly are not the type of drivers that are jumping lanes, blaring music and speeding excessively.

When the elderly crash it is usually a single vehicle collision or a slow moving tap, unlike younger drivers who come colliding towards the victim causing lifetime injuries or death.

I would rather the age group was raised, speed trackers to be fitted to drivers for a minimum of two years.

The couple who were passengers in that black taxi crash, newlywed couple, living apart, needed 24 hour care.

@grumpygrape my point is he has all the tests to prove he was a fit driver. He told the dvla , presumably followed the dvlas processes for proving his abilities.

That's a choice you made as it was important to you to either keep driving or understand better if he could or not. We did not do the dvla test with my dad. We tried to get him to accept that his driving days were over rather than going through more tests or trying to get him to accept it later down the line. There every chance he could still drive legally. But I think it's only right that he needs clearance from the dvla to do so.

What's not to understand? Would you honestly have been ok with him driving if the dvla hadn't said he was ok? The point is that loads of older people have undiagnosed dementia that are not being picked up, I think it's about 30%. Some people just don't have people around to help to notice or care. They shouldn't be getting behind a wheel.

If the DVLA had said no then he would have stopped. In the end it was me who said no to him.
The problem with blanket bans is it hits the competent as well as the competent and the bloody minded would carry on anyway.
I still think black boxes should be used more because they give an ongoing profile of the driving. Complicated if the are multi drivers obviously.

A lot for car insurers won't offer insurance over 80 or offer prohibitively high premiums. My grandad found that his premiums increased once over 80

As prohibitively high as for young male drivers?

Insurance for elderly drivers IS higher than for middle aged drivers generally speaking.

It CAN also be higher than for younger drivers, depending on lots of factors. Some younger drivers can get relatively cheap insurance depending on the age/model of car, age of the driver, years since passing the driving test, mileage driven, location, where parked, no claims discount, black box, etc etc. Some youngsters don't help themselves by driving "boy racer" type cars or losing their no claims discount by having a minor claim.

It's certainly not a blanket rule that insurance for younger drivers is always more expensive than insurance for elderly drivers. Insurance premiums aren't based on age alone. It's no real surprise if an 80 year old's insurance for his old Nissan Micra parked in his drive that only does 5k miles per year is cheaper than a 20 year old's Audi parked on the street who does 20k miles per year is it??

My 23 year old son paid just £211.83 for a year's fully comprehensive insurance for his car last year! Would you really say that is "prohibitively high" - I don't think so!

As I say, it's based on lots of factors, not just driver age. In his case, it's an old, low value car, he does low mileage, and it's parked off road, and he has the maximum no claims discount (for his age), been driving since his 17th birthday and passed his test just 5 months later, so has had a full driving licence and no accidents/claims for 6 years.

When my MIL was still driving aged 83, she likewise had an old car, parked in her garage, low mileage, full no claims discount, but she couldn't find any insurance less than £500! (I know, I had to do the online comparison sites for her!).

I believe it is higher but I am not expert on this and would need to defer to @Badbadbunny's son. I imagine that part of the reason that younger drivers are charged more is because they have no driving history and no 'no claims discount' so are all assumed to be high risk. It's clearly as unfair as assuming that all over 80s are incapable of driving but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

That's a cheap premium for your son but he does at least have a few years of low risk (I assume) driving behind him at 23. My DS paid v high rates for the first 2 years. He's a very good driver, with quick reactions, but lacked the history.

No this is really ageist. I could see the argument for additional testing, but not for a blanket ban.