Is over 80 too old to be driving?

I'm nearly 80 and still drive, but agree with those who suggest a refresher course for older drivers. I would appreciate being told what my weak points are, and how to improve them.
I don't drive at nights now ( since a wild boar ran into our van one dark rainy night), and avoid busy roads if possible.
Luckily the roads here are quiet.

It depends on the person surely, not age. There are bad drivers of all ages and none of them think they are.

The Institute for Advanced Drivers does assessments for older drivers. It is done in your car in your area and at the end they will assess your driving suggest things you need to improve, if appropriate and also that you should stop driving if they think your skills have deteriorated too much.

The problem is that every time an elderly person is involved in a serious accident, especially with fatalities, the newspapers run with it and do the full shock horror, should older drivers be on the road? Meanwhile three fatal accidents involving younger drivers will be half a column on the lower part of page 45.

That tragic accident in Sweden that killed all the members of the Indie band, Viola Beach, seems to have been caused by bad, reckless driving. I have yet to see any journalists rise up and demand that men under 20 or between 30 and 35 (depending on whether it was a band member or the manager who was driving) or should be tested every year or made to stop driving at their ages.

JessM I may be wrong on the age but I'm sure my neighbours who lived by us in Spain where tested every 2 yrs at a test centre on a simulated screen to gauge their competence I think it was either at 70 or 75,they also underwent a compulsary eyetest at the same time.

Well here in France you don't even have to renew your licence at 70! All my neighbours still drive well into their eighties and nineties. There is no public transport abd very little traffic but there are some we dread meeting on the narrow country roads.
I agree there should be a test of reaction times post 80.

There is a graph on this article that seems to illustrate that we become safer drivers as we get older. And then after 70 less safe. Difficult to draw too many conclusions as it is total numbers of people killed - rather than how many killed per mile of driving.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24204489

There are many older drivers who are extremely competent. Their experience and greater caution probably compensate for a decline in reaction times. Older drivers are probably more cautious too, but I can think of a few exceptions.
However there are increasing numbers of very old drivers - the numbers of people living into their 80s and 90s has increased sharply.
And some of these are no longer good drivers because if we live long enough, the chances of having some sensory or cognitive impairment increases sharply.
A relative of mine is struggling with a husband with Altzheimer's. He is still convinced he is OK to drive and has tantrums if thwarted. His memory clinic last summer seemed to think he was OK to drive, but he can't remember how to use household equipment these days. His wife is afraid that he will hurt someone or get lost. A friend of theirs (a retired psychiatrist who specialised in Altzheimer's) agrees that he no longer has the ability to respond if he encounters anything unexpected while driving on his own.
I think it is time that the government and DVLA stopped shrugging off the responsibility for this. The onus is currently on the driver to let them know if they are not fit to drive and this is not good enough. I would be in favour of a 3 year licence renewal scheme, starting at 80, with a compulsory eye test required combined with some kind of test of competence - either on the road or on a computer simulation. (could offer a choice for those who don't like computers).
Anyone know what happens in other countries?

My mother (who lives with us) is 89 and still drives. She will not drive at night or in bad weather and generally her journeys are under 6 miles (no buses here either). Her eyesight is good, though her spatial awareness is not, so parking can be a close run thing and her bumpers are covered in scrapes and scratches. In general she drives during the middle of the day and avoids rush hour, and though I don't think she's dangerous as a driver, her awareness of others on the road is not as sharp as it should be. My worry? When her license was renewed last year she went through no test or doctors check, it was just sent from the DVLA. Whilst she is in good health both physically and mentally they had no way of knowing this.

I think refresher driving lessons are the answer. In fact I think everyone should have one every few years no matter what their age. They keep us up to date with changing Highway Code rules and I enjoy doing it.

Soooo, it's ok for him to talk to you Luckygirl? That's not right!

I am now the sole driver in our house as OH lost his licence for medical reasons. I try to avoid driving at night as the sight in my right eye is not fully correctable and I hate the bright lights coming towards me - I have a feeling that cars have must brighter lights now. It certainly feels like it!

My main problem is that OH is just about the most nervous passenger you can imagine. He refuses to answer me if I speak to him as he says I should be concentrating on my driving and not talking to someone! It is a source of some strife and journeys, especially to a holiday destination, are a nightmare. I have to teach myself to close my ears and not let myself be riled by the "braking" he is doing, the running commentary on potential hazards, and the frequent gasps and grabbing the dashboard. I have to say that I drive others around and they do not do this!

It was the cause of a Valentine's Day altercation today as I told him that his behaviour in the car was making me less safe! Sigh.

My dear late Mum always asked me to tell her if I thought her driving was deteriorating. She had both knee joints replaced and I took her out after each op to get her confidence back, but she was quite a good driver and only drove locally on roads she knew. At the age of 82 she had a stroke and at that age recovery is a little slow. We checked with DVLA who told us she was still able to drive without a medical and I took her out and about a few times but she'd lost her confidence after the stroke. Was really waiting for me to ask her whether she still wanted to drive, which I did one day and she admitted she was not really confident enough to drive any more and wanted to give up her car. I told her she could afford to have taxis if she needed them and she was quite happy with this. Our local authority swapped her bus pass for £100 worth of taxi vouchers and she could use a £2 voucher each time she took a taxi, which she did to get to the hairdressers etc. Mum did find it a bit isolating as she was no longer confident enough to walk down the road and cross a busy road to get to the bus stop, so was not able to go out whenever she wanted to, but luckily I only worked part-time and was able to run her around to medical appointments etc.

I think it's a conversation you should have with your elderly parents before they get to the stage where their driving is becoming unsafe.

Agreed, our car is our independence and link with the outside world.

DH is 81 and his reactions are still excellent. Just today, 2 near-misses, would have been accidents if his reactions hadn't been so good. The second one, a motor-cyclist overtook us at speed on the left, in a clearly-marked cycle lane BUT I don't think cycle lanes are meant for motor-cycles.

We've both had our cataracts done, some years ago now and vision is better than it used to be when we wore glasses.

DH has just paid off the car loan. This car will be 3 years old in March so it's pretty modern and may be the last car we ever buy. It's a Ford Fiesta titanium.

I was talking about this yesterday with a friend, before I heard about the crash. Her father is 80+, as is my FiL and both are still driving. In fact, both bought brand new cars in the last year, so you have to admire their optimism.

The thing is both have been driving for more than 60 years which means the thought 'paths' in their brains will be deeply ingrained, so memory problems from something like dementia are not likely because it's more recent memories which are affected.

Both are cautious drivers and far more likely to leave the correct distance between their car and the one in front, not take chances at roundabouts, drive too fast, etc. They both only do local journeys, so don't drive at higher speeds. Both have regular eye tests and one just had laser treatment after realising his eye sight was changing. The other is diabetic and takes his health very seriously because he wants to continue driving.

These are all the kind of reasons why older drivers are not the group most likely to have an accident and when you think about it that way, it does make sense.

I'm not in favour of testing for older drivers unless testing is also introduced for other reasons such as following licence loss, serious accidents, repeated speeding offences, etc. For too many older people a car is their independence and link with the outside world.

Sorry for the repetition, my eyesight isn't wonderful either.
Then again, I don't drive.

In the last hour, an elderly chap banged on our door. I don't think he could see our doorbell. He had parked his new'ish car outside and said he had been driving around our small estate of bungalows, totally lost, for some time.
He couldn't recall the name of the lady, or address, he was meant to be visiting, but eventually found it on his mobile, alas no credit left on his phone.
I asked where he had driven from, "London." We are in Herts.He said the street lamps were confusing him. He was wearing very strong glasses.
He then drew a rough map of where he thought the house was.
We suggested a few street names, and luckily he recognised one.
My husband then got our car and drove in front of him until he reached roughly where he thought the house was. A very worried lady came to the door and said she was anxious as he was so late.
We dread to think of his drive home, to London, on a Saturday, in the dark.

In the last hour, an elderly chap banged on our door. I don't think he could see our doorbell. He had parked his new'ish car outside and said he had been driving around our small estate of bungalows, totally lost, for some time.
He couldn't recall the name of the lady, or address, he was meant to be visiting, but eventually found it on his mobile, alas no credit left on his phone.
I asked where he had driven from, "London." We are in Herts.He said the street lamps were confusing him. He was wearing very strong glasses.
He then drew a rough map of where he thought the house was.
We suggested a few street names, and luckily he recognised one.
My husband then got our car and drove in front of him until he reached roughly where he thought the house was. A very worried lady came to the door and said she was anxious as he was so late.
We dread to think of his drive home, to London, on a Saturday, in the dark.

There was an item on older drivers on television recently. The DVLA centre in Wokingham had found that older drivers have slower reactions than young ones and may have mobility problems but they compensate by driving slower and leaving more space between themselves and other vehicles. They also avoid things they find problematic such as driving at night. The younger drivers tended to drive too close and too fast and were continually braking heavily when they misjudged distances.

Oh dear, how can there possibly be a generalisation about driving safety linked to age? As has been posted previously, statistically it is younger drivers who cause the most accidents and yes, there is a tendency for the media to report via age, rather than any other detail. There are drivers of all ages who are a danger to themselves and others but there are many who aren't. The key is to identify the dangerous drivers before they become potentially fatal accidents. Maybe everyone should have a driving assessment (not a test) every 5 years? Once introduced the outcome could provide reference points to track either improvements or deterioration in driving skills and safety. I'm possibly over reacting as I do get irritated when anything is 'blamed' on age, rather than the detail of the individual situation, but surely the issue of driver safety is more complex than age?

The driver's age is always focused on if there's an accident.

This happened very recently. Driver and front seat passenger were both said to be over 80. www.echo-news.co.uk/news/14270854.VIDEO__Road_closed_after_accident_outside_Adventure_Island__Southend/

Quite honestly it is a mystery how this happened. There's a 20 mph limit along the whole of the sea-front. Much of it is 'shared space' i.e. pedestrians have as much right as have drivers. There are always families and children crossing to get to Adventure Island.

It looks likely that (a) the woman driver and her passenger were not wearing seat-belts and (b) it may have been an older car without airbags. And that she was driving much too fast and possibly was distracted/not paying attention.

None of this has anything to do with her age.

We're both in our 9th decade - he's 81, I'll be 81 this summer. My husband has problems with his mobility, but once he's in the driving seat his back is supported, he doesn't need his left leg, and we can go for long distances. We've both done Advanced driving courses and are both well aware of the dangers on modern roads. Older people don't tend to chatter on their mobiles while driving, which I saw just this afternoon, a young woman.

We had a white van (couple of youngish fellows, late 30s, early 40s), drive out of a side turning straight at us last week. They clearly didn't see us at all, because they just kept coming at us and my DH did some very nifty swerving to get out of their way - we were expecting a thud any second and quite frankly I have no idea how they didn't hit us. They were within 6" of the car. My new car, only had it 10 days . DH pulled up, got out and shouted and swore at remonstrated with them, but the driver merely held up his hand and drove past. He obviously thought that was a sufficient apology

I don't think driving ability can be measured by age. Everyone is different, people age at different rates. One person of 65 can be much older and slower to react than another person in their late 80s. I do think, though, that some form of assessment should be carried out somewhere in the mid 70s. Not a test as such, which could at a stroke revoke a person's licence - that would be terribly unfair. But if an assessment showed some areas of concern, then the person could be obliged to go on a refresher course just to brush up their skills. If that didn't help, then maybe a full test would be the only answer. Yes, it's sad to take away a person's independence, but better that than they cause a fatal accident.

I worry more about the white van syndromes than the driving age.

Had break hard this morning when a white van came right out of a side road without stopping, then speeded up in a 30mph zone to well over 50 mph.

treebee I agree "Oo-er"!!
Re night driving and being dazzled, I sympathise, and a neighbour recently recommended yellow night driving glasses to wear over her regular glasses. She swears by them and I think got them from Amazon.

I passed 4 driving school cars the other day when it was lashing down: not one had their lights on!!!.
These would be the stupid people who say: but I can see!!! Not realising that people can't see you clearly.

I agree with the above but I also feel that people should be forced to have their eyes tested 2 yearly. I have an ex friend who is a diabetic, can no longer read road signs of any size and has never been to an optician to have her eyes tested. She buys glasses in a chemist or supermarket off the shelf, buying what she thinks will suit her.

She is the one who dragged the steering wheel out of my hand and once parked and locked my car with the engine still running. I refuse to have her in the passenger seat now, never mind drive my car. I once stopped at a bus stop and invited her to catch a bus because I could no longer take the long running commentary about my driving. I have never had an accident.

DH is now feeling that he wants to give up driving and although he's been a driver for most of his adult life (HGV), he recognises the fact that his reactions are slower and he becomes a bit anxious in heavy traffic so he won't re-apply for his licence when it's due again.
I'm not confident on motorways, but I know that if I have him sitting in the passenger seat, I'll be ok for longer journeys that entail motorway driving.
As he says, he's never once had any form of accident and doesn't want to be the cause of one now.