When should you stop driving

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Mr. B

MB Enthusiast
SUPPORTER
Joined
Feb 11, 2012
Messages
1,838
Location
.
Car
.
I am interested in the views and experiences of board members in relation to the question of ‘when should you stop driving’ ?
Briefly a close family member who is 82 years of age is reluctant to surrender her driving licence and sell the car. Her car can sit on the driveway for months on end without being driven and her excuse will be ‘well it’s there if I need it’. The tyres on the car are breaking apart through lack of use.
When she does drive it’s no more than a couple of miles either to the supermarket or the doctors. Recently other family members have been giving her lifts and on several occasions she has even used a taxi.
In all the years she has been driving she has only had one accident and that was last year at the end of her road when she was waiting for the vehicle in front to pull out onto the main road. She did the common roundabout trick in that she saw a gap and went for it but the car in front didn’t. The trouble is she doesn’t think she didn’t anything wrong. :doh:
The family is clearly concerned because at her age her reactions are not what they use to be and we are concerned about her causing an accident and injuring someone else. The last time I was a passenger with her I didn’t feel 100% safe but her excuse would be, ‘we’re not going far’. Not that that should make any difference whatsoever.
She has just renewed her licence for another three years but has the time now come when we insist or even force her to surrender her licence and sell the car or do we let her continue to drive ?
As perhaps a lot of us are getting on a little at what point would you consider stopping driving or have you had experience of stopping an elderly relative from driving ?
 
My mother, 86 next month, had an official driving assessment earlier this year , passed and has her licence for another 3 years.

My assessment is that she needs to give up driving...but, hey ho.

I think, though, she is coming to a realisation that this will happen sooner rather than later, having recently admitted to feeling less confident.
 
Should be a test every 2 years over the age of 80 IMO.

The number of very elderly people who I see driving, could they perform an emergency stop if a child ran out?
 
You are opening a can of worms here. But it is one that must be opened. I am now the er..proud owner of a 2006 Toyota Yaris as my very sprightly and 100% fit mother in law at the age of 79 just said "sod it, I don't need to drive anymore and the roads are full of idiots " and gave up driving. The car is well known to us and too good to sell, so it's now the family run around.

On the other hand one of my neighbors 5 doors down is 78 and should of given up driving years ago, he is a bl00dy menace, he comes down our street with the engine screaming because he has forgotten to change gear. He is short but refuses to adjust the seat (or does not know how) so he goes by like a F1 driver with just the top of his bonce showing giving him a very poor field of vision I know his hearing is poor and I can't remember the last time I saw him use his indicators.

His daughter is a friend of ours and she says when she brings the subject up all he does is remind her that she does not drive so what would she know.!

What to do ? :dk:
 
I went through this scenario with my father around 3 years ago. He has macular degeneration but insisted he could see perfectly well. He is now 94 yrs old.
After numerous scrapes in car parks and being asked not to park at a local pub (lunchtime meal, not boozing:p) because of the damage he was causing, my brother and I decided it was time he was forced to stop.
We had the consultant at Bournemouth Eye hospital write a letter which we sent to the DVLA and his licence was withdrawn.
Dad wasn't happy, but finally understood his eyesight was not good enough to drive. I was just surprised the eye hospital hadn't informed the DVLA far earlier.

Its not an easy decision to make for someone else, but I agree a competency test along with an eyesight test should be mandatory from 75+.
My Dad was another accident waiting to happen.
 
The tyres on the car are breaking apart through lack of use.

Badly enough to earn 3 points each? If so, job done.


This issue was covered here a few years back - if the thread can be found....
 
I think this chap is still driving ok

7574943.jpg
 
I know two gents - one is in his late eighties, the other in his early nineties - who are both good, safe drivers. They don't dodder and dither and are both aware of traffic and pedestrians. What I'm saying is - it all depends on the individual. I have been driven by much younger people who, in my opinion, shouldn't have been allowed to be in charge of a wheelbarrow, let alone a car.
 
My wife's parents both went through the same issue about 5 years ago - he is now 95 and at 90, he cried when my wife insisted he stop driving. Very hard thing to have to take away their last bit of independence!
 
There are always outliers and I think the bell curve for this is quite fat and stumpy - ie: there are plenty of people under 75 who can't drive very well at all and (if you watched "100 year old driving school" you'll know) there are some much more elderly people who are surprisingly capable! To be honest I think the roads change so much and standards change that everyone should have to do a very quick basic test every 5 years regardless of age. At the very least you should have to have a couple of hours tuition every few years just to brush up.
 
There are always outliers and I think the bell curve for this is quite fat and stumpy - ie: there are plenty of people under 75 who can't drive very well at all and (if you watched "100 year old driving school" you'll know) there are some much more elderly people who are surprisingly capable! To be honest I think the roads change so much and standards change that everyone should have to do a very quick basic test every 5 years regardless of age. At the very least you should have to have a couple of hours tuition every few years just to brush up.

Have to agree with ongoing training.

I recently did a "high performance driving session" over 2 full days with one on one instruction.

2 months ago, my wife had a 2 hour (actual driving) with a feedback session afterwards with the IAM. The best part about my wife going to the IAM is 1) they confirmed that she is still a very competent driver and more importantly 2) they told her that everything I've been telling her is correct:):D
 
There are always outliers and I think the bell curve for this is quite fat and stumpy - ie: there are plenty of people under 75 who can't drive very well at all and (if you watched "100 year old driving school" you'll know) there are some much more elderly people who are surprisingly capable! To be honest I think the roads change so much and standards change that everyone should have to do a very quick basic test every 5 years regardless of age. At the very least you should have to have a couple of hours tuition every few years just to brush up.

We all develop bad habits - I sent my son to driving school because I didn't want to pass on any bad habits I may have developed.
 
To be honest I think the roads change so much and standards change that everyone should have to do a very quick basic test every 5 years regardless of age.At the very least you should have to have a couple of hours tuition every few years just to brush up.

The greatest virtue of that would be the prevention of bad habits - eg, indicating after brake lights (I want advance notification of intent, not the equivalent of a postcard that arrives once you are home).
 
My dad was diagnosed with epilepsy in 1997 but continued to drive!!

The rows that we all had with him.
 
Well that's the problem, and if you try to get a couple of hours training they're not interested anyway as they want block bookings and lots of hours in the bank.
 
My dad was diagnosed with epilepsy in 1997 but continued to drive!!

The rows that we all had with him.

My Dad had one fit in the 70s and lost his licence for 12 months, he was given a chauffeur and it was brilliant.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom