Elderly Drivers

[Khandro]

'Elderly drivers may face 'annual checks' to prove they are 'not a danger to the public'
they may soon be forced to go for annual checks to ensure they are still safe to get behind the wheel if a new campaign is successful in changing the law.' Express.
Does this make sense?

[barry1010]

Does anyone know the last time driving tests were suspended and anyone old to drive could just buy a driving licence? My dad never drove a car in his life but bought a full driving licence, just in case. He supervised all us kids when we were learning to drive.

[pixie374]

It makes sense. I'm not sure saying others are "worse" is really the point. In most cases, the onus is on drivers to make sure their eyesight is a standard to read a number plate and they have to inform DVLA of certain conditions, it's quite clear.
But reactions do decrease with age (I don't know what age it would be worked out to be). And that's something drivers very rarely notice for themselves, as there is nothing to compare it with- until there is an accident.

[pixie374]

Barry, my step grandad never took a test in his life, and always drove. It wasn't necessary when he started.

[Hopkirk]

My Dad never took a test. He learnt during WW2, and after the war testing people like him was impossible. He was granted a full licence.

[barry1010]

That's right, pixie, I think it was 1934 when driving tests became compulsory. My dad bought his licence before then but later people could convert their provisional licences to full licenses because testing was suspended because of the war or an oil crises, I think.

[davebro]

Testing started 1 June 1935. My dad held a licence from before then (he could drive but never owned a car after the war).

[barry1010]

I'm trying to work out if there any drivers still on the road who have a full licence without having taken a driving test.

[roopower]

Round here its some of the younger people cutting other drivers up on roundabouts and weaving through that are the problem. They drive too fast and have too much confidence.

[barry1010]

The young believe they are invincible, roo - I certainly did when I got my first motorbike at 17.

[davebro]

I would think there are still a few hundred drivers on the road who never took a ministry test. I think some were given a licence because they had driven in the forces. If they were 20 in 1945 they would be 75-ish now. And there are a couple of hundred drivers over 100 years of age.

[davebro]

sorry - should read 95-ish

[Barsel]

In some ways I'm a better driver now than when I was younger. I no longer try to beat someone getting away at the lights and I'm more considerate. I would agree to having to submit a recent eye test report when I next renew my licence and a letter from my GP to say I'm still fit to drive.

[Khandro]

I think there's a bit of 'ageism' going on here, the suggestion that an older person is too gaga to know that s/he needs new glasses, is ridiculous.

[andy-hughes]

As both the number of cars on the road, and the number of older drivers both increase, an additional safeguarding test would seem appropriate.

Personally, I would raise the driving age to twenty-one in an effort to cut down the vast numbers of accidents among younger drivers, and I would instigate a mandatory test every twelve months for every driver over seventy, with a re-test, and then a second failure resulting in the withdrawal of the licence.

We cannot go on pretending that our roads are as they were when I passed my test nearly fifty years ago, and safety constraints should reflect those changes.

[andy-hughes]

I remember really clearly that when I took my test, it didn't say that I was now qualified to drive, what it did say was that i was qualified to continue learning without supervision, which is something entirely different.

The idea that a seventeen-year-old can roar off down the motorway at seventy miles an hour as soon as they pass their test is asking for fatal accidents, and delivering them.

Similarly, the way that young drivers learn a host of dreadful habits - not least the notion of indestructibility - because they drive unsupervised after a short period of experience, leads to the sorts of accidents that make headlines every single day.

We should accept that it's not the 1930's anymore, and stop teaching and testing drivers as though it is.

[Barsel]

I disagree andy. Why should every person over 70 have to take a yearly test when they have never been involved in an accident and have never had points on their licence?

[barry1010]

Andy, that would be an extra 5m tests a year. How many would that be a day?

[teacake44]

While everyone should make sure that their eyes are up to the mark if they drive, I can't help feeling that the idea of getting older people off the road is a back door idea of reducing traffic in general. Its been said many times that younger drivers are the main culprit for bad driving. Should any law come into play for getting older drivers off the road for any other reason than safety, if proven, then the new small car market will take a massive it, a lot of older drivers change their car every two/ three years, but may be thats all part of the governments plan??

[davebro]

I was rear-ended at a roundabout. The driver was 17 yrs & 1 week old. He had learnt to drive off road - presumably at an old airfield or some such & passed the test on his 17th birthday.

[teacake44]

^^ massive ( hit)