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Too old to drive ?

I am sure there are plenty of good older drivers out there - its just i dont see them very often. of course, the same problems exist across age groups and yes i do believe that young, foolish drivers will be more of a risk-group. but it gets my goat that these older people (who should know better, due to life experiences etc), ignore their common sense just because they want to keep their indepenance.

I think it's a small minority of over 65s who are a problem on the roads, there are plenty of drivers in their 70s and 80s who are perfectly able to drive safely ( probably a lot better than me now in my 40s ) but, and it's a big but, it only takes one who is not fit to drive to kill me or mine. Something should be done to identify these people, if even only to themselves.
 
Two things spring to mind here. Firstly, my wife's Granddad was a notoriously bad driver, mainly due to poor eyesight. After visiting us, we were always amazed that they never once had any trouble getting home again. Occasionally we would see them passing in the streets, and flash the headlamps and wave, but not once did he ever see us. Scary, very scary.

On a separate note, a few years ago I literally came within inches of killing an old couple in their old bean tin of a car with my wife's XJ. Thank goodness we were in a 40 zone and no faster. The old duffer driving was coming towards us, and had pulled on to the central hatchings to turn right (across us) into a petrol station. We saw him pull into the centre way ahead of us, and there was very little traffic around in either direction. Anyway, after staying in the middle for several seconds as we approached, he waited until we were within a few yards of him and then set off. Fortunately I was ready for him, and managed to swerve to the right in an attempt to go behind him. We skidded to a halt with the horn blaring away right next to him - he eventually saw/heard us and stopped too. We were both sat skewed across the centre of the road passenger side to passenger side and not enough room to open any doors. The old duffer's wife's face was a picture. He looked absolutely clueless, and clearly wondered where on earth we had magically apparated from, even though we had seen them for 20 to 30 seconds already. Dozy old *******. We would have crushed their bean tin car for certain.

Nearly a case of the last thing to go through his mind was his wife's.
 
Fortunately I was ready for him,

There you go - you adjusted your driving and coped with the situation and avoided an accident. :thumb:

I drive a long section of road twice a day which has the centre striped off and if someone is sitting in it then I generally back off from the car in front and let them across. If they're not there then they can't hit me.
 
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a P plate is no good to the 5 year old who runs out and because of poor reaction the driver mows them down, or to the person on the pavement that gets run down when the driver leaves the road due to generally dozyness.

So the 5 year old has a better chance with any of the other stereotypes out there such as the company car driver on the phone not paying attention driving a good bit faster.

Or with a mum distracted on the school run with three kids in the car.

Or a boy racer charging down the road well over limit.

Or somebody coming back tired from a long shift.

i would say there starts to be a danger past 70 to 75 age group.

i think it all comes down to driver choice. a driver makes a choice to drink & drive and gets the punishment. same with drugs, same with driving tired and same with driving when they must know how bad their reaction is.

Drink driving can be enforced because you can test for it. The fact that it can be tested for is deterrent. The campaigns that support it basically push people who are going to drive to not drink at all so that there is no subjective judgement as to fitness to drive involved.

With oldies the problem is gradual deterioration, subjective judgement, and lack of mechanism for enforcement.

Bring in the equivalent of a breathalyser to check somebody's faculties and you have a means of enforcement.
 
Quote taken from http://www.boston.com/cars/newsandreviews/overdrive/2009/06/elderly_drivers_say_theyd_ace.html:

"A 2001-2002 study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety cited that drivers 85 and over were involved in 14.5 fatal vehicle crashes per 100 million miles. The next killer age bracket? Sixteen to 19-year-olds, at 7.5 crashes per 100 million miles.

im sure no one is saying ALL elderly drivers are dangerous but people need to look at driving a different way. It is NOT our god given right to drive a car - i dont care if you live in the middle of nowhere! Cars are deadly weapons, if a person struggles to walk, see, hear (at ANY age) then they should simply not be allowed behind a wheel.

For those sticking up for the elderly drivers - think how you would feel if they killed one of your family say 'i got the accelorator and brake mixed up!'

There are plenty of bad drivers out there - and some of them are old, simple as that.
 
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a P plate is no good to the 5 year old who runs out and because of poor reaction the driver mows them down, or to the person on the pavement that gets run down when the driver leaves the road due to generally dozyness.

i would say there starts to be a danger past 70 to 75 age group.


Do you have any stats on how often that happens?

I have no idea, but I'm not constantly reading stories of such an event.

No idea of the stats either , but I do have personal knowledge of a similar incident : I told this tale at the RPU meeting the other night .

this took place about 30 years ago in Edinburgh , the driver was one of my mates , aged about 20 at the time but a reasonably sensible guy and certainly not a lunatic boy racer . Colin was driving his MK 1 Ford Granada along a road , with cars parked all along the nearside when a young boy ran out in front of him from between two of the parked cars . Neither of them stood a chance of avoiding the collision : Colin hit and killed the young boy .

This was a young man with good reactions - point is it does not matter how good your reactions are in these circumstances .

I don't know all the details , but I understand speed was not a factor . I know that the Police fully investigated the incident , Colin was breathalysed and found to be clear , his car was taken away and checked over . Later Colin was relieved to find he would not face any charges .

I haven't seen Colin for many years now , but I'm sure he still lives with it .
 
Interesting statistics which I have taken the liberty to post the full graph. According to their figures 20-24 year olds are a slightly greater risk than 75-79 year olds which sorta defeats the highly skilled/lightning reaction school of thought??:doh: Obviously the 85+ drivers appear to have a high accident rate which I could well believe-however the 70-85 year olds appear to pretty much mirror the same distribution curve ( reversed) as the 29-16 year olds and nobody is talking about taking them off the roads?:dk:
 
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It goes to show, if you use it you don't lose it. Assuming you have it in the first place...
 
On a similar tack, a great old gent - now deceased sadly - was one Tom Delaney, who held a valid MSA competition licence until his death at age 95.

We used to see him regularly at classic race meetings in his lovely old Lea Francis Hyper.

He died shortly before the Goodwood Revival race weekend of 2006, in which he was booked to participate.
 
I found this amusing, but how true

I've sure gotten old! I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement,
New knees, fought prostate cancer and diabetes
I'm half blind,
Can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine,
Take 40 different medications that
Make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts.
Have bouts with dementia ..
Have poor circulation;
Hardly feel my hands and feet anymore.
Can't remember if I'm 89 or 98.
Have lost all my friends. But, thank God,
I still have my driver's license.
 
There should be a law put into place where 70+ should be assesed on their driving ability every 5 years to judge if they are still able to drive safely. I myself have nearly been hit by oldies whilst riding my bike in special designated cycle lanes that these folk asume are passing lanes!
 
Not so sure on the age thing - but doesn't a person have to have their license renewed at age 70 anyway? Why not include a medical with that renewal.

More of a concern is eyesight. When we lived in USA - a drivers license had to be renewed every 5 years and a sight test taken at that time. If you needed glasses / contact lens - then glasses had to be worn when taking the sight test and the photo of you on your license showed you wearing glasses. It was an offense not to carry your license on you and to show it to a policeman.

So why cant we insist a DL is carried at all times - why cant we insist that when license is renewed the photo on it has to reflect your eyesight position.
 
So why cant we insist a DL is carried at all times - why cant we insist that when license is renewed the photo on it has to reflect your eyesight position.

That would be fine if the DVLA could work out a way to lose the counterpart sheet from the licence. Too bulky to carry round.... why don't the government come up with some sort of ID scheme ? ;)
 
That would be fine if the DVLA could work out a way to lose the counterpart sheet from the licence. Too bulky to carry round.... why don't the government come up with some sort of ID scheme ? ;)

But the "credit card" driving licence specifies if a driver needs eyesight correction.

On the back there is the section 12 - Codes. Code 01 here shows that the driver needs eyesight correction.

Additionally, the counterpart of the licence when folded is no bigger than a single credit card - surely not a problem.
 
we have alot of elderly drivers in my area, and there are always stories in the local paper of them either being in, or causing accidents in teh area, some bad some minor...

about a year ago i was taking my old mans at the time new Lexus SC430 for a drive round town, and was driving down a narrow one way street, when a nissan micra was coming the other driven by a very old lady, she showed no signs of moving over, so i had to mount the curb (holding my breath the whole time) and when she got past the car, i very politely, and i mean politely, said "excuse, but this is actually a one way road..." and her reply was "I'm only going one way you flash git..." - i was speechless, and stunned, all i could do was laugh!
 
Additionally, the counterpart of the licence when folded is no bigger than a single credit card - surely not a problem.

It might be the size of a credit card but it's the thickness of a house brick, have removed it from my wallet for that reason just too bulky all the time.
 
Saw this on the local news this morning as its not a million miles away from me. My view on older drivers is that they are potentially more of a danger than younger drivers. You have the 2 ends of the scale you have younger drivers with good reactions and good eyesight but little experience and then you have the elder generation with slow reactions, failing eyesight and think they have all the experience in the world. They denounce the younger generation as knowing nothing when in actual fact they are probably safer.

For those that were at Strathclyde last night Kinnie summed it up perfectly when he was talking about the old guy doing 25 mph in a 60 mph posted limit, downright dangerous and fuels road rage. Not sure at what age you draw the line but maybe medical, eyesight and a short retest mandatory at 65? Just my 2p worth.

Why not just make it simple and retest everyone periodically
 
One if the things I really don't understand is why "drivers" who can't control their car at 0-5mph i.e. reversing into a space, are happy enough to drive at 70+mph on a motorway.
 
From all the posts here I have worked out the answer.

Anyone who is older or younger than me is a bad driver, but drivers my age are perfect.:thumb::eek:
 

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