Driving Age

[Canary42]

We hear a lot about upper age limit, but here's why the lower limit should be raised to 25 (or perhaps a limit on engine size for first 5 years).

A terrible waste of life.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c99xmzey88vo

 

[bhg481]

It's no more compulsory to be stupid under 25 than it is to be senile over the age of 70. Why should all people in an age category be punshed/deprived because some are irresponsible?

[Old_Geezer]

The incident has been mentioned earlier. 

 

But you don't need to be under 25 to be an idiot.

[johnk]

Supposed to be a plan to limit the age of passengers carried by young drivers so they can't encourage stupid driving

[barry1010]

Plenty of ambulance, police, bus, lorry, van drivers under 25. Plenty of very responsible young adults.

Plenty of over 25s drink and drug driving too.

[DDIL]

There are far more under 25's that drive safely without incident.

I personally don't want to limit drivers over a certain age but i do want them to have to be retested.  I nearly came a cropper from an elderly driver the other day, pulled out at a roundabout very slowly and far too late, it was a good job that my brakes and the car behind be brakes were spot on.

They need to do something about limiting engine size perhaps for over and under certain ages.

[DDIL]

I would caveat that with unless you have professional driving qualifications.

[Cloverjo]

Terribly sad. My heart goes out the parents of the dead boys. But, why has a teenager got a car like that? 
Get them a Mini or Nissan Micra. The boy would still be an idiot, but he'd do less damage. 

[youngmafbog]

Why would professional driving qualifications (older or younger) make the difference?

We should be looking at restricting people who pass their test to a certain BHP and no carrying of passengers for a while, similar to motorbikes.  Most are of course becasue they cant afford.  At the other end of the spectrum a lightweight re-test.

Nothing will ever be perfect but that sort of thing will help.

[DDIL]

"Why would professional driving qualifications (older or younger) make the difference?"

Because as has been pointing out you get under 25's drivers who are in the police, Army, Border Force, HMRC and they would have professional driving qualifications.

[youngmafbog]

And?

Are you saying under 25's in the Forces would never drink drive?  OK, they could carry passengers etc in the course of their duties in a marked vehicle but not on "civvy street".

And at the other end how does a professional driving qualification stop senality?

[DDIL]

I have explained several times what I meant and the driving qualifications were for younger drivers as I had previously stated that older drivers should be retested.

 

[barry1010]

Most professional drivers are employed and employers should be aware if an employee has medical issues such as dementia. CPC licence holders are retested every 5 years, every year after 65

 

[douglas9401]

All of the above fall apart without a decent police force and the backup of enforcement of penalties.

Knobs will be knobs regardless of rules.

[davebro3]

All such cases are tragic but road deaths have reduced from about 7000 pa in the sixties to about 1500 pa now & that's with many more & more powerful cars on the road.

We must be doing summat right even without additional age/testing limitations.

[bednobs]

seat belts?  air bags?

[netherfield]

8.29

Mini or Micra can attain similar speeds and carry 4 people, and likely would have been the same result. I still think the no passenger idea for 2 years would be better suited.

[davebro3]

I agree - most cars these days are capable of 100mph plus or minus a bit.

One of my early cars was a mk1 mini - topped out at 60 mph, downhill with a following wind.

[ToraToraTora]

Rather than muck about with some arbitrary age qualification what about this... In order to get a licence after passing the test ever motorist must deposit say £10000 in a bond that they get back after 5 years of they have no fault accidents or convictions.