Over-70s face driving ban for failing eye tests

SexyGreyFox · Monday at 19:23

Over-70s face driving ban for failing eye tests

The proposed changes in England and Wales come after a coroner calls the UK's licensing system the "laxest in Europe".

www.bbc.com

Another 3 years and this will affect me but what's interesting is that earlier this year I was watching one of my regular TV programmes called Cause of Death because my department works every day with our Coroner so is a huge interest to me.

Cause of Death (TV Series 2022– ) ⭐ 8.9 | Documentary

1h

www.imdb.com

It's a cracking TV series but earlier this year the series did a special on over 70s who had killed people because of their bad eyesight.
One bloke was asked to read a number plate from the required distance and could only read it when he got 2 metres from the car.
What was amazing all 3 drivers were told by the opticians to inform the DVLA but obviously they didn't and this is what the Coroner was calling for, that Opticians etc should inform the DVLA on the patients behalf.
What's surprised me is sitting there watching the series me and Mrs Sexy turned to each other and said "Nothing will happen" but how wrong we were.
It's not law yet but should be.

Also they want the drink driving limit set to 22 max which I'm all for.

Efour · Monday at 19:29

Completely and utterly agree.
They should have a mandatory sight test every 5 years already if that's not a thing.... Hit 70 should be once a year.
You can tell i don't read what other people post.

[FnG]magnolia · Monday at 19:29

Related story - our eldest girl is learning to drive at the moment and even though I'd consider myself an excellent driver I'm also pretty sure I'd fail the driving test if I were to do it tomorrow. That's not old age - yet - but simply years of probably bad habits and learned mistakes.

Efour · Monday at 19:31

[FnG]magnolia said:
Related story - our eldest girl is learning to drive at the moment and even though I'd consider myself an excellent driver I'm also pretty sure I'd fail the driving test if I were to do it tomorrow. That's not old age - yet - but simply years of probably Sexy bad habits and sexy learned mistakes.

I would watch this movie.

Diddums · Monday at 19:31

Bout bloody time. Here in Godalming I swear I bring the average age of our road users down by 20 years every time I get in the car. And these old duffers are shockingly crap on the roads, it drives me nuts.

Malevolence · Monday at 19:52

[FnG]magnolia said:
Related story - our eldest girl is learning to drive at the moment and even though I'd consider myself an excellent driver I'm also pretty sure I'd fail the driving test if I were to do it tomorrow. That's not old age - yet - but simply years of probably bad habits and learned mistakes.

Same here. My licejce was rescinded quite some years ago due to an ongoing medical condition. That condition has now been sorted out and I've been allowed to reapply for my licence again, but I have get a provisional and take my test again. The test these days is very different to when I passed back in 1989. This is one major factor in me going for my CBT and going down the motorcycle route this time. Plus, if I applied for my test now it'll be nearly a year before I get to take it.

Gray2233 · Monday at 19:57

I actually think this is a good idea.

My grandfather refused to give up his car into his 80's, and it was to the point where he was asking people (myself included) to look for anything coming before he pulled out while driving alone in the car. Made worse by the fact the stubborn git refused to wear glasses in public, perhaps an extreme example here but he was extremely vain. The last time he asked me to "look for cars before he pulled out" even with an empty street was three weeks before he crashed at a substantial roundabout which is when he finally gave up.

Diddums · Monday at 19:59

Gray2233 said:
I actually think this is a good idea.

My grandfather refused to give up his car into his 80's, and it was to the point where he was asking people (myself included) to look for anything coming before he pulled out while driving alone in the car. Made worse by the fact the stubborn git refused to wear glasses in public, perhaps an extreme example here but he was extremely vain. The last time he asked me to "look for cars before he pulled out" even with an empty street was three weeks before he crashed at a substantial roundabout which is when he finally gave up.

Not really an extreme example tbh, you hear stories like this all the time.

randal · Monday at 20:01

As many commenters in the BBC HYS section said: "Why is this just limited to 70+ year olds?"

Eyesight starts to decline from the 40s, and there are probably people out there younger than that who don't know they need glasses. The ol' "Can you read that plate on the other side of the car park?" before the practical test kicks off isn't exactly a strong test.

Gray2233 · Monday at 20:04

Diddums said:
Not really an extreme example tbh, you hear stories like this all the time.

I meant more about the refusal to wear glasses, but honestly you might be right.

There's a lot of older people that simply don't want to acknowledge that they're slowing down, it's awful for them don't get me wrong but sparing their feelings shouldn't come at the potential cost of another persons life.

throwaway4372 · Monday at 20:04

I have no issues with eye testing old ppl, but they aren't the only ppl driving with bad eyesight.

Only a few years in to staring at screens all waking hours I got quite short sighted and realised I needed glasses for driving, not long after that I wore them all the time.

This idea that old people are the ones with bad eyesight comes from a time before off the charts screen use.

Not once has anyone told me I need glasses for driving, but I can't read text on the TV a few meters away without my glasses.

Makes me wonder what sort of eyesight other people are driving with.

Diddums · Monday at 20:05

Gray2233 said:
I meant more about the refusal to wear glasses, but honestly you might be right.

There's a lot of older people that simply don't want to acknowledge that they're slowing down, it's awful for them don't get me wrong but sparing their feelings shouldn't come at the potential cost of another persons life.

I meant about that too. You hit the nail on the head with the refusal to acknowledge age and to be honest knowing myself, I'll be an absolute nightmare when I get to that point too.

Gray2233 · Monday at 20:05

randal said:
As many commenters in the BBC HYS section said: "Why is this just limited to 70+ year olds?"

Eyesight starts to decline from the 40s, and there are probably people out there younger than that who don't know they need glasses. The ol' "Can you read that plate on the other side of the car park?" before the practical test kicks off isn't exactly a strong test.

I turned 40 last year and I'm starting to struggle with longer distances, things I used to be able to see perfectly fine at X are becoming blurry. If I'm walking toward someone on a longish road that's on the smaller side I genuinely can't tell if it's a kid or a woman, sounds daft but I really never had those problems until recently.

Diddums said:
I meant about that too. You hit the nail on the head with the refusal to acknowledge age and to be honest knowing myself, I'll be an absolute nightmare when I get to that point too.

I can be a stubborn sod myself, so yeah totally agreed. I'm all for personal freedoms and hate heavy handed Governance, but in this instance it's in everyone's best instances and likely my own.

Hagar · Monday at 20:08

I have an eye test every two years, I am 72 years old. Earlier this year I had an eyesight problem and voluntarily gave up driving until after an eye test in july which allowed me to get back on the road safely.
Not surprisingly it is the younger cohort who kill themselves and others with more regularity than us older folk.

Mr Badger · Monday at 20:12

throwaway4372 said:
I have no issues with eye testing old ppl, but they aren't the only ppl driving with bad eyesight.

Only a few years in to staring at screens all waking hours I got quite short sighted and realised I needed glasses for driving, not long after that I wore them all the time.

This idea that old people are the ones with bad eyesight comes from a time before off the charts screen use.

Not once has anyone told me I need glasses for driving, but I can't read text on the TV a few meters away without my glasses.

Makes me wonder what sort of eyesight other people are driving with.

Presumably your optician? I had an eye test quite recently and the optician specifically asked whether I drive. This was followed by her advising me that my distance vision is good enough that I don't legally need to wear glasses when driving.

SexyGreyFox · Monday at 20:12

[FnG]magnolia said:
Related story - our eldest girl is learning to drive at the moment and even though I'd consider myself an excellent driver I'm also pretty sure I'd fail the driving test if I were to do it tomorrow. That's not old age - yet - but simply years of probably bad habits and learned mistakes.

Same here.
When the written tests came out in the 90s (?) our Manager on the factory gave us all an example written theory test for an experiment.
I got 2/21 and the most any of us got was 4/21.
I'd like to think I'd pass the driving but like you say many years of bad habits.

[FnG]magnolia · Monday at 20:16

Hagar said:
I have an eye test every two years, I am 72 years old. Earlier this year I had an eyesight problem and voluntarily gave up driving until after an eye test in july which allowed me to get back on the road safely.
Not surprisingly it is the younger cohort who kill themselves and others with more regularity than us older folk.

It might be different in the UK but here in NZ the two 'danger' groups are the very new drivers (who are also typically young) and the older population. I'll dig out the stats but I'm sure it's due to (1) experience and (2) the type of driving. Old people do short distances (e.g. to the shops and back) but frequently so the attraction rate of incidents is higher, whereas younger people tend to do more mixed driving. Huge generalisations of course.

throwaway4372 · Monday at 20:17

Mr Badger said:
Presumably your optician? I had an eye test quite recently and the optician specifically asked whether I drive. This was followed by her advising me that my distance vision is good enough that I don't legally need to wear glasses when driving.

Nope they never mentioned it. At one point I thought surely I'm over the limit and queried it but they said no I'm not. Either the limit is crazy wrong or my opticians have all been incompetent.

SexyGreyFox · Monday at 20:17

Hagar said:
I have an eye test every two years, I am 72 years old. Earlier this year I had an eyesight problem and voluntarily gave up driving until after an eye test in july which allowed me to get back on the road safely.
Not surprisingly it is the younger cohort who kill themselves and others with more regularity than us older folk.

Like I said it was the Lancaster Coroner who suddenly had 3 cases come in virtually on the trot.
On the programme one bloke ran over two women crossing the road and hadn't got a clue.
Another old bloke actually killed another pensioner walking down a pavement who had ironically failed an eye test and gave up his license, when the Police turned up all the old codger was asking was when he'd get his car back.
All 3 Pensioners ended up doing prison sentences because they should have given their licenses up but chose not to.

Gray2233 · Monday at 20:27

SexyGreyFox said:
Like I said it was the Lancaster Coroner who suddenly had 3 cases come in virtually on the trot.
On the programme one bloke ran over two women crossing the road and hadn't got a clue.
Another old bloke actually killed another pensioner walking down a pavement who had ironically failed an eye test and gave up his license, when the Police turned up all the old codger was asking was when he'd get his car back.
All 3 Pensioners ended up doing prison sentences because they should have given their licenses up but chose not to.

You know that it happens, but reading it like that is pretty horrific all things considered.

It's bad enough that people lost their lives, but I have to wonder about the family of the drivers too, kids and likely grandchildren? Being a kind and loving grandparent doesn't annul you from wrongdoing, but good god that must be a nightmare for the extended family and that's secondary to the loss of life which is of course much worse.