It had to be a Honda Jazz..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-28866050

TL;DR: man with dementia drives the wrong way down the M6; police crash into him to stop him

Too many dangerous old people on the roads, they should be retested and evaluated at 70+

Probably yes they should. Current systems are not working; I reckon most people know of someone who carried on driving longer than they should have and unfortunately a lot of those will only have stopped after being in an accident, often of their own making.

Janesy B said:

Too many dangerous old people on the roads, they should be retested and evaluated at 70+

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65 then every 5 years I think.

I've noticed the Ford B-Max and Suzuki Splash are slowly overtaking the Jazz in the worst driven car on the road competition - they seen to appeal to the same demographic.

Doesn't say anywhere at all that his driving licence has been revoked. Pretty ridiculous if he's allowed back on the roads to do it again.

Retest people at the official retirement age and then every so many years after.

Last Friday aout 3 miles away from where i live a Jazz managed to wedge itself over the central reservation barriers, i'm guessing that was a coffin dodger..

Regular retests please.

Antony101 said:

Retest people at the official retirement age and then every so many years after.

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Arbitrary threshold like this are nonsense. There are plenty of people that are a danger to themselves and other way before retirement, and also plenty of people that are perfectly safe to drive at 70+.

or just make people who drive honda jazz' take a retest every month for driving the hateful things.

Janesy B said:

Too many dangerous old people on the roads, they should be retested and evaluated at 70+

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I cant see how that would stop someone with dementia from getting in a car and pootling off to the shops.

There are a vast number of 70+ year-old people who are very good drivers. It's just unfortunate that there are some with more severe health issues who perhaps aren't aware that it's time to hang up the keys for good. These are the ones that make the news when they drive the wrong way down the motorway and/or cause an accident.

It's not just OAPs that do it, either.

Antony101 said:

Retest people at the official retirement age and then every so many years after.

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Agree with this. Or at least have a compulsory refresher course just so they know about changes etc in the 40+ years they have been driving. The GF is diabetic and has to have hers resent off every 2 years since she passed her test so i can't believe anything as simple as this hasn't been added for OAP's already. Especially for cases like Dementia etc.

There are plenty of dangerous drivers of all ages on the roads, should be periodic retests for everyone, perhaps with increasing frequency as you get older.

It's political suicide to tell people they're not trusted to have a license for life because we all think we're good drivers as we're not criticised other than a beep and a hand jesture. The biggest group effected also the biggest voting block, it wouldn't play well in the press as old people would lose thier independence in a time of encouraging old people to not be reclusive.

Events like these are rare, we do have some of the safest roads in the world and I don't thinks there's a big enough public will to make them safer. What's more outrageous is that it's upto the license holder to tell the dvla if thier eyesight isn't upto scratch

Howard said:

It's not just OAPs that do it, either.

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Fortunately she got a very appropriate sentence for that bit of stupidity.

I do think that the DVLA should investigate concerns about elderly/mentally ill people from relatives etc. My grandfather insisted on driving well into his 90's despite not being up to the job, but the DVLA simply weren't interested. It seems that an accident has to happen before any official action is taken.

'Where are you?'
'On the M6'
'Well be careful, I just heard a few minutes ago there's someone driving the wrong way on the M6'
'No kidding! There are hundreds of them!'

markweatherill said:

'Where are you?'
'On the M6'
'Well be careful, I just heard a few minutes ago there's someone driving the wrong way on the M6'
'No kidding! There are hundreds of them!'

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LOL

Ah it must be a weird world where you think you're on the right side of the road and everyone else is in the wrong. Wonder what was going through his mind.

I had this old old guy just randomly stop in the middle of the roundabout.. he looked frozen and just sat there confused!? not sure how they can think it's ok to get behind the wheel.

By coincidence I've recently found myself behind a couple of Honda Jazzes, admiring the 'i-VTEC' badge on the back, and thinking Honda could save a little money there.