Old age and Driving

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I had serious concerns about an elderly relative and his ability to drive following several near-misses by running red lights / roundabouts. He refused to listen to the family's pleas to hang up his keys & I get it, it's part of his independence.

However I was forced to report him to the DVSA after he nearly mowed a family down on a zebra crossing. I did this anonymously so that he didn't feel we were out to get him. Thankfully the letter requesting him to submit to an assessment arrived shortly after his 90th birthday so he thinks it was that which triggered it.

I went with him and they do all sorts of cognitive testing prior to a practical driving assessment.

He asked for me to be present when they gave results and explanation thereof.

I knew he'd fail but I was astounded to learn that they'd already pretty much made that decision before the practical. The assessor stated that in his opinion he should have been assessed a long time ago.

That got me thinking, Shouldn't we have these assessments automatically at 70 instead of just asking drivers to declared they're fit enough and rely on others to report concerns?
 
Yes, I see old people nearly cause accidents everyday. I myself was nearly crashed into just yesterday at an island because the old guy just didn't look.

Another old guy i've seen about must take longer to get to his car and get in from his front door than it does to get to where he is going.....Reaction times must be non existent.
 
Was driving at the weekend with the Mrs and this 70+ year old in his Honda jazz cut me up massively on a roundabout (nearly causing an accident) then weaved across the lane on the slip road adjoining a motorway. I beeped at him. He got so angry he genuinely thought he was in the right and had no idea that his driving was absymal. Once you hit a certain age you should have to take an annual test.
 
I think over retirement age you should really have re tests every so often, saying that i'd be in favour of a blanket retest every say 10 years regardless of age. Having a refresher course in anything is almost always beneficial.
 
I think what would help is if there was greater awareness/clarity as to what options are available to people who have to give up driving. As you said, he may have been concerned about losing his independence so perhaps more should be done to promote public transport or other types of mobility scheme whereby people can be more confident about giving up driving.

I don't have any ideas on the detail of how that should work however, just a high level conceptual viewpoint.
 
spookywillow said:
Yes, I see old people nearly cause accidents everyday. I myself was nearly crashed into just yesterday at an island because the old guy just didn't look.

Another old guy i've seen about must take longer to get to his car and get in from his front door than it does to get to where he is going.....Reaction times must be non existent.
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I see young people drive like utter muppets everyday, so let's raise the minimum driving age to 30.
 
On a practical side, yes I can see why people should possibly have a retest.

On an emotional (?) side, I'm not sure I agree....I think it'd be too easy for people to lose their license, and it is a HUGE part of their mobility. Once you take the car, they're essentially housebound and reliant upon others to help them. This isn't always available and could cause resentment.

That 1 mile walk to the shops is perfectly fine when you're in your twenties.....not so cool once you're 75 with back pain..
 
I think refresher courses should be a lot more common and pushed onto the public more.

Could compulsory refresher courses negate the need for retests? I think people would rather do a refresher than sit a retest, esp when the pass rate for driving test is only 47%.
 
I finally convinced my 93 year old grandfather to do away with his car due to safety concerns. He was paying approx £1,200pa in insurance. When he mentioned his independence, I pointed out he can spend £100 a month on taxi's being chauffeured around so it doesn't have to be a total loss of freedom...
 
At age 63 and with a million plus miles under my belt, I will be delirious to cut down my motoring over the next 5-10 years and then rip up the licence altogether.

I have been lucky, driving in a era with relatively little traffic, no cameras etc.

There are too many cars on the roads, by all means, get rid of the old and decrepit, price the young and reckless off the roads and refresher courses sounds like a plan.
 
Hades said:
I am in favour of a driving test every 10 years regardless of age.
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Me too.
Laws change and new things are always being added to our roads. I've been driving for 24 years now and even in that time the roads and levels of traffic have changed significantly.

People in their 80s driving today would have started in the 1950s. Very, very different roads.
 
nkata said:
There are too many cars on the roads, by all means, get rid of the old and decrepit, price the young and reckless off the roads and refresher courses sounds like a plan.
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I think it should be harder than what it currently is to get a driving license. In the hope it might improve the quality of drivers on the road.

But I also realise that pigs don't fly and come back to reality :p
 
TBH i am suprised the gov has not caught onto this super money spinner by now.

Use existing testing facilities and make mandatory mini tests for everyone at 5 year intervals.... KER CHING because its £50 a pop!


I should be the chancellor :p
 
I think there are probably two main blockers to the government putting in place periodic re-tests.

1) They don't have the facilities or personnel to run them. I believe in some places you already have to start booking your driving test months in advance. Imagine how much demand would increase by with this.

2) It will not be popular. They're going to lose a lot of goodwill from the majority of people who simply don't want to have to go through it again.
 
bazzabear said:
1) They don't have the facilities or personnel to run them. I believe in ALL places you already have to start booking your driving test months in advance. Imagine how much demand would increase by with this.
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Fixed for you :D, joking aside this is true, put my postcode in and this is what it's telling me for test waiting times for cars:

Chesterfield - 12 weeks
Sheffield (Middlewood Road) - 9 weeks
Sheffield (Handsworth) - 8 weeks
Rotherham - 9 weeks
Worksop - 9 weeks
Buxton - 12 weeks
Barnsley - 12 weeks
Ashfield - 12 weeks
Watnall - 17 weeks
Doncaster - 9 weeks
 
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