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.
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 ?
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.
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 ?