my 93 yr old mother insists on driving !

drink drive deaths still account for about 13 per cent of all road fatalities

Those of you who want to stop the elderly driving might do well to focus on other 'dangerous drivers' such as these, and foreign drivers who do not even have to pass a British driving test!

Nanasam
Sounds like your mum was a bad driver anyway! BUT re eysight you ARE allowed to drive if you are blind in one eye if the eyesight in the other eye is good.
She presumably had passed the driving standard in the good eye since the consultant was hardly lying!

Statistics show that something like 90% of accidents occur within 1 mile of home

Yes but by far the majority are very trivial bumps where nobody is injured.

Accidents go up in rush hour and at night. Driver error is more likly at such times. Older people driving locally are less likely to drive at these times.

You are thinking of risk the wrong way. Over the course of a year due to their low road usage, and usage at quiet times of day, the elderly driver is far far less of a risk to the public than forty year old mum (or dad) in her four by four rushing to work, rushing to pick up toddler from nursery then older kids from school, running them around on dark evenings to football ballet piano!

Its an acknowledged phenomenon that there a 'mad mum' risk between 3 and 4pm when the accident rate goes up!

My DM was notorious for her antics. She drove the wrong way round roundabouts, she once (at night) drove down a flight of stairs into a school playground thinking it was the car park. She was the only person I know who's own fault it was that she got hit up the rear (she suddenly did an emergency stop for no reason half way round a roundabout). There was no way she could read number plates across the road. She really was a nightmare, leaving a trail of havoc behind her. She had MD and was blind in the other eye but STILL the consultant said she was within the guidelines to be able to drive, ignoring us shaking our heads violently behind her back, trying to get her to stop driving. Obviously, Mair, her consultant was unaware that he should have reported her!

I also strongly disagree with people who only drive locally. Statistics show that something like 90% of accidents occur within 1 mile of home.

Until driving laws carry the same importance in people's minds as laws against murder, theft, child abuse etc. we will continue with the carnage

Continue over congesting the roads by piling more and more people into the country and we will continue with 'carnage' (your choice of word does slightly over egg the pudding IMO), regardless of driving laws!

We should remember that the UK, along with Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, are the four safest EU countries for road users. We have admitted to this country literally MILLIONS of people who have never even passed a UK driving test and let them loose on our roads. Many have been caught driving very badly far worse than this lady's mother! Why arent you advocating they are all tested in the UK after say three months residence?

BUT I do agree with you about speeding, and it would be well worth the OP speaking to her mother about this, asking her to agree to stop motorway driving and driving at night (given that there will b some sight impairment due to the AMD and night time is the most dangerous time to drive for everyone). She should persuade her mother to promise not to do either of these things.

The hospital does not report to the DVLA, it is the responsibility of the driver to do so

That is not correct. If her eyesight is below the driving standard then doctors have a duty to report it to the DVLA. You do not have to have absolutely perfect 20/20 vision to meet the driving standard.
Your mother clearly does meet it, at present, and this is why the DVLA were relaxed about it.

My OH calls them "Donor Cars."

She shouldn't be on the road if she can't see or drive properly !! Get her off it before she kills someone. Tell her GP NOW and he will probably be able to sort her out. She has to Renew her licence every three years. He could call her in for a check up.

nfk's post was the one I read before I posted mine thatbags. It is, as Craicon says, incredibly dangerous.

Germans, as they often do, have an appropriate word for people who drive the wrong way along a motorway Geisterfahrer which means Ghost driver

Exactly Craicon - and it is this casual attitude to driving law that is the nub of the problem.

It's OK to drive at 80, because everyone around you is doing it - No it is NOT OK. It is illegal.
It's OK to do a 3 point turn in a slip road if you do it carefully - No it is NOT OK. It is illegal.

Until driving laws carry the same importance in people's minds as laws against murder, theft, child abuse etc. we will continue with the carnage.

2. Approaching motorway, starts to turn left to take Eastbound slip road. Realises error. Backs up and does speedy, efficient three point turn (making sure road is clear), continues on over/under motorway to take correct Westbound slip.
--------

Firstly, regardless of how efficient or otherwise she managed her 3 point turn, it's an illegal manoeuvre.

Secondly, it is incredibly reckless.

Just think about it....
She would have come down the sliproad the wrong way facing oncoming traffic!

Also, realistically on many motorways in the daytime, cars travelling at speed will quickly appear behind you when you're pratting about doing a 3 point turn and driving the wrong direction towards them, even if the road was clear when you first looked. Imagine if it was a speeding lorry hurtling towards you?

If you accidentally exit at the wrong junction, you continue up the slip road and either get back onto the motorway via the same roundabout junction or drive on to the next junction.

Anyone that cannot appreciate how stupidly dangerous that manoeuvre was really shouldn't be driving. I don't care whether they are 18, 50 or 90!

Driving a car is not a right but a privilege that bestows a moral obligation to be considerate of other road users and not put them in mortal danger!

sure

I wouldn't, bkate, but check out nfk's post a few up thread. Puts a different light on it. I wish the OP would come back and give some clearer detail so that we could be sire about what actually happened.

How many people on here would consider it safe to reverse for any distance up a motorway slip road?

The hospital does not report to the DVLA, it is the responsibility of the driver to do so.

Thank you, nfk. Put like that, it doesn't look too bad at all to me.

My mother is 90 and still driving, with macular degeneration, but will only go on short journeys and will soon give up altogether. When I spoke to the DVLA about her eyesight they said if she feels happy to drive to carry on, thus putting the responsibility on the elderly driver. It's possible that your Mum feels this is on great big symbol of her independence, but if I felt as you do I would openly and point blank refuse to be her passenger, and if this means not visiting then so be it.

Ah, so it was two separate incidents.

1. Driving at 80 on a motorway. (This can be considered normal in some places such as anywhere near Birmingham or London.)

2. Approaching motorway, starts to turn left to take Eastbound slip road. Realises error. Backs up and does speedy, efficient three point turn (making sure road is clear), continues on over/under motorway to take correct Westbound slip!

Trying again.

I think this may be 2 sentences.

"She drove her tiny Kia at 80mph down the motorway" (full stop, complete thought)

" and when she took the East sliproad out on to the A30, not the West," "she backed up the slip road and did a 3 point turn to get off."

I think mum wanted to go west, took the wrong sliproad, and baked up the sliproad doing a 3 point turn to get off the sliproad (in the wrong direction).

I would want her license revoked. Potentially saving lives.

"She drove her tiny Kia at 80mph down the motorway and when she _took the East sliproad out on to the A30, not the West), she backed up the slip road and did a 3 point turn to get off. I got out of the car and was furious and thoroughly frightened. She told me I was a hysteric!"

She wanted to go west, took the wrong sliproad, and baked up the sliproad doing a 3 point turn to get off the sliproad (in the wrong direction). I would want her license pulled.

Wikipedia: The three-point turn (sometimes called a Y-turn, K-turn, or broken U-turn) is the standard method of turning a vehicle around to face the opposite direction in a limited space, using forward and reverse gears. This is typically done when the road is too narrow for a U-turn.

The basic manoeuvre consists of driving across the road turning towards the offside kerb, reversing across the road to the original nearside kerb while turning, and driving forward towards the original offside kerb, now the nearside. In a narrow road or with a longer vehicle, more than three legs may be required to achieve a full 180 degree rotation.

GIll

This lady has an accident free record. She is healthy and sharp. Her children have absolutely no right to 'insist' she stops driving.

Thank goodness youre not a magistrate! Eek! (Well I hope not).

NOBODY is absolutely safe driving. Any one of us could kill someone due to a stupid error on a bad day. We do not even know whhat this slip road incident was, and I have seen plenty of younger drivers do bad things and get away with it.

All of you twittering on about ageism and moaning about younger drivers, just ask yourself how you would feel if your grandchild was seriously injured by this lady driving into a bus queue, or if your DH was killed in the pile up caused by her doing a 3 point turn on a motorway slip road? Sorry OP, I know this is tricky as I have a Mother who has just stopped driving at 85, but you have to get together with your brother and sister and insist that she no longer drives. Her temper is surely easier to live with than a grieving family, and possible court cases/financial ruin as you find out that she is uninsured. Being 93 DOES NOT give anyone permission to break safety rules, however inconvenient it is for them. Maybe point out how many taxis she can pay for with the car costs she will save.

Actually, if what I can visualise of the story is what happened, then I'm amazed no other driver called the police.

Whatever happened, it sounds to me as if tt should be telling this story to the police, not us. Telling the police would mean one had done one's duty by other road users. And the next step, if the police decided mum was still fit to drive, would be to refuse to get into a car mum was driving.

Surely the telling the police thing is obvious, no?

You wouldnt have both an east and west slipway exiting the motorway on the same side would you?

You can have this at some intersections - a junction signed A30 east and then a mile or so up the road the A30 west

No. And if it's the A30 in Devon off the M5, then the A30 east junction and the A30 west. junction are miles apart, or so it seems when I look at Googlemaps.

Might be somewhere else, of course. A30 is not a road I know.

But backing up, three point turn, and getting out of the car on a motorway slip road. WHAT!? Really? It certainly sounds bonkers enough to steal and hand in someone's driving licence, or at least to report them.

If it was really that bad, tt, why haven't you told the police? Or have you?