General Chat

driving? 85 yr old lady today drove down along the train lines at Brockenhurst in the New Forest in error. How??????????????

Yes I think so,

teenage girl killed
"The driver was 87-year-old who three days earlier had refused to surrender his licence to police when he failed an eye test."

Aside from the likelyhood of physical deterioration of eyesight & hearing, with the best will in the world reaction time is slowed even for the most lucid and healthy older person.

I am 74 and I'll give up MY licence when I decide I am a danger to others....
but at present the 50 lbs(or so) of kit I have to carry to indulge in my hobby is not allowed on a public transport........so when my hobby goes........then maybe,so does my licence.....Bob

age is not the factor.............it is capability.........some drivers are more capable than others......regardless of age........

ive seen some 30 year olds that I wouldnt trust with a pedal car!!

yes i think after 70 you have to redo your test frrequently, only going on what OH is saying tho, i refuse to get in his dads car, he has stopped now, just pops along one road to a shop xx
:-D

Back in Dec 2008 I was in a hospital ward with a lady of 82.

She could read a newspaper, even the smallest print, without glasses. Talking to her visitors she was normally a very mobile lady and would usually help out at her local church. Only in hospital because of a broken hip.

Her doctor passed her fit to drive.

My cousin once removed in America is 91, and still drives his car in his local rural area. His daughter assured us we were safe to go out with him, and so we did. His driving was okay! But wouldn't want to go far, or in a city with him. He is bright as a button, just a couple of years ago bought a quad bike as it's cheaper on gas than a car to run about on, on warmer days.

I will be 84 in July and I hope to still be driving then. If I couldn't drive I would be almost house bound, as I can't walk very well with Arthritis in my hip and other places. In Australia you have to have a proper driving test at age 85 but, until then, the doctor has to decide. One of my neighbors, an old man of 96, still drives and visits his girl friend every day. She lives about 12 km from him.

Sylvia

In this province of Canada (don't know about the others), you have to have an annual driving test every year after the age of 80


The driving instructor who gives the test can take the license away


A doctor can say that someone is no longer fit to drive


A family member or close friend can contact the doctor to suggest that a person is no longer fit to drive.




sylvia

My friend's father refused to give up driving. He said he was perfectly safe. He lived in a village with not much public transport and he insisted he "needed" to drive. Very selfish point of view, really. The trouble was he was ok most of the time but if the unexpected happened he was very slow to react and had a few near misses.

In the end she said she'd tell the authorities he wasn't safe if he didn't give up his licence. She'd never have forgiven herself if he'd killed someone.

He's still very angry with her a year on but at least the roads are a bit safer. There should be some kind of test every year after the age of 70, we aren't the best ones to judge how safe our driving is.

Gwynne

The average standard of driving is so abysmally poor across the board that it would be totally unfair to single out any particular age for banning. Theres nothing wrong with the current system.

Ive seen boy and girl racers that should be baaned for life from getting in a pedal car. I dont see age as being an issue to driving. If you are fit and can read the numberplate test, then that's fine.

Driving tests should be compulsory at 75 then annually at 80.

I think that there are far too many roadside signs which sometimes conflict wth road markings. just (if you have time) count the number of posts alongside roadways, each one(pair) of posts is a possible killer, especially to motorcyclists, if you come off on ice/wet quite often the most you'll get is a bruised backside and Ego,


when you hit a pole........you are dead!!

Bob




another thing which irks me is the driver that drives through several roundabouts without indicating at all, and then..........finally indicates when turning off to the left.

on roundabouts( in my opinion) especially on dual carriageways, you should always indicate left even if staying on the main road, after all,
the purpose surely is to let the Approaching traffic know your intentions???

Robert,
Driving tests should be compulsory at 75 then annually at 80
???

if you dont feel confident then you can always go to the DVLA site and seek out the online theory driving test

Driving tests should be compulsory at 75 then annually at 80.

But if you skid off the road that means you arent driving in accordance with the road conditions, be it wet, ice, snow or whatever. Theres far too much emphasis on roads being dangerous. Nonsense. Its the drivers that are incompetent - there are no dangerous roads. Just dangerous drivers and they are of all ages. If I had my way there would be an annual test for all drivers and the points system halved so that 6 points meant a 12 month ban. Rigid enforcement of speed limits and mandatory prison for causing death or injury by careless driving. Oh, and triple the difficulty of the standard driving test and include car control and not just how to operate it. Skid pan and emergency response training should be mandatory.

When you look at the carnage on the roads its appalling. If any other thing was to have so much death and injury attributed to it, it would be banned outright. Yet we blithely carry on and blame every mortal thing but the competency of the drivers. Statistically, its not the elderly motorist to blame for most collisions.

It would be best if re-tests were introduced after a certain age. Even if you are physically capable of driving, the reaction times are slower, and the congestion/speed of the roads has changed considerably to when an 80 year old first started driving.

Boy/girl racers have the time to improve their skills and become safer; unfortunately Senior Citizens don't.

You can't rely on the DVLA filtering licence renewals - we declared all sorts of problems that my father had, and they STILL renewed it! Having been a commercial traveller all his life, his car was his lifeline...until he drove while delusional and crashed it into 3 parked cars and wrote it off.

some interesting comments on here .my late dad had been driving since a lad & he got Dementia .he would not give up driving had to tell DVLA .he didnt speak to me for months but if i hadnt done anything .he could have done himself & other people harm .not all old people are bad drivers .some young ones are awfull .speeding all the time .dont know how they pass the test .agree though annual test after 75yrs young my opinion, I love driving .49yrs .years this year. still not due for re test a few yrs yet . :-)

I believe you have to clock up a certain number of hoursa year to keep a pilots licence.

Maybe you should have to do a certain number of miles a year to keep a driving licence.

We have young drivers going up & down the main street in our village .dont work maybe just trying to keep miles up on there car :-D

My father, at nearly 90 still drives, and I am quite happy with this at the moment. He only drives a small car, not a super model, and he only goes into the next village. He has long since said he could not cope with busy roads or motorway driving. That was his decision, and I will leave him to make the decision to give up altogether. He has a clean driving licence after driving almost 50 years, and has an eye test regularly at the opticians.

Julia in Derbyshire

I used to take my uncle to leg club in a village hall on the side of town nearest to us because he didn't want to drive up there.

He would, however, drive himself to the doctor'e surgery in the next village through wining back roads that are no favourites of mine, very narrow with poor visibility where there are sharp corners.

He was my dad's brother so I suppose logic was no part of that equation!