Should a 97 year old man be driving on a public road?

billysielu said:
Yeah there's defo an age, somewhere between 70 and 80, where you need to be stopping driving. People should do this voluntarily as part of being a responsible driver. No shame in it.
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Plenty of people aren't safe in their younger years. Aren't most fatal crashes involving young male drivers?

Competency is the key, not age.
 
Minstadave said:
Plenty of people aren't safe in their younger years. Aren't most fatal crashes involving young male drivers?

Competency is the key, not age.
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Sure, and if a person is young and not competent they should stop too.
But if they don't, and we have to enforce something, it's a lot easier to have an upper age limit than to retest all drivers at regular intervals, which just isn't practical.

Explosivo said:
I would rather drive in a world of 80-90 yr old drivers than 17-27 yr olds.
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I do think 17 is too young. People seem to be children for longer these days too.
Maybe increasing the age for driving to 21 is reasonable.
 
billysielu said:
Sure, and if a person is young and not competent they should stop too.
But if they don't, and we have to enforce something, it's a lot easier to have an upper age limit than to retest all drivers at regular intervals, which just isn't practical.
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Why bring in testing at the upper age limit when the worst drivers are at the lower age limit? Or do you want to blanket ban at an age limit? That would be illegal under discrimination laws.
 
Minstadave said:
Plenty of people aren't safe in their younger years. Aren't most fatal crashes involving young male drivers?

Competency is the key, not age.
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Yes, but they are competency issues for different reasons and need different solutions. The young driver has just passed a competency test, so it's their inexperience and youthful exuberance that are causing the issue. Not macular degeneration ;)
 
Minstadave said:
Why bring in testing at the upper age limit when the worst drivers are at the lower age limit? Or do you want to blanket ban at an age limit? That would be illegal under discrimination laws.
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As a Doctor, can you confirm that 97 year olds have the same reflexes in fast moving situations as someone in their (for example) 20's?
 
Uther said:
You didn't answer the question...
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Neither did you.

Reflexes change over time. If reflexes were they key discriminator in driving ability - stop people driving when their reflex time gets slow enough. That's a very simple test, you've solved the problem no?
 
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