Older drivers. Should we take a test at 75?

Bring on driverless cars?

Oh dear, but it says in the media reports that the elderly driver had cancelled her insurance because she only used her car once a week and didn't want to pay the premiums for it.

That once a week trip was enough to kill that child, insurance or no insurance.

I live in a rural area and without a car I'd be unable to function as we have no public transport. However, I think we should have to take a test to provide evidence that we are still able to drive safely. I'd go for every 5 years after 75 but currently we can't even cope with testing first time drivers, there's long waiting lists in most areas.

I think we should take a test at 70 and also a medical, both payable by us, to make sure we are safe on the roads for ourselves and other road users. As we age reactions do slow down and we need to be very honest with ourselves whether or not we should still be behind the wheel. At 77 next birthday, I no longer drive on the motorway because I don't drive fast enough but still drive at night and I am competent at roundabouts etc. 58 years driving with no fines, speeding tickets or accidents. The DVLA take too much on trust that when applying for an extension to our driving licence we can tick all the appropriate boxes knowing nobody will check.

M0nica

The reason I suggested a requirement for cognition tests and needing to provide a recent eye test saying you met driving requirements if you were over 70 is because the queue for driving tests is so long and retesting all people over 70 would be well nigh impossible.

Eye and cognition tests would have meant this accident with a driver with dementia could have been avoided and also the much larger number caused by older people with poor eyesight.

If you are mentally alert and can see adaequately, your driving is likely to be up to standard, providing you drive regularly.

The biggest danger for older drivers, women with husbands or male partners in particular, is that the men do almost all the driving and the women pootle too and from the supermarket and soon loose their competence to deal with anything else.

DH and I have always consciously shared driving on longer trips to stop that happening but earlier this year due to a variety of circumstances, we did get into this situation and I was very conscious of starting to lack confidence driving locally and further afield.

Fortunately we had a month with a lot of longer distance driving coming up, so I did all the driving for that month and DH commented he could visibly see my confidence and my driving improving as the month progressed. I drove over 1,000 miles on busy roads, dual carriageways and motorways

That's a really good idea MOnica, and would mean that the waiting list for tests would not be a problem.

I have never driven as I couldn't pass my test when young. I hated every minute of lessons and instructors advised me that I just wasn't adept at a lot of the skills needed. I have felt the need to try again.
My 90 year old father is still driving locally even though we've tried our best to stop him.
A test of some sort, maybe eyesight, check of NHS and insurance claim records, and a theory test (rules are ever changing), would be good. There aren't the resources for a practical test as new drivers can't get tests booked for months.

NotSpaghetti

^older drivers’ - those who are 70 or older pay highest premiums gor a reason.
They are (statistically) a greater risk even than young drivers.

Here's an interesting little piece about it from the insurance perspective:
www.mooneerams.com/blog/will-the-record-number-of-uk-drivers-aged-over-90-increase-the-number-of-personal-injury-claims/

Thanks for the link NotSpaghetti. I was shocked when my car insurance doubled this year. I tried various companies before phoning my insurer. The helpful young man reduced the policy by altering my estimated 10,000 miles to 8,000 per year. He explained that older drivers are statistically a greater risk than young drivers.

Does anyone recall the TV programme ( can't remember the name) where older people volunteered to have mock up driving tests ?

LOUISA1523

Does anyone recall the TV programme ( can't remember the name) where older people volunteered to have mock up driving tests ?

Wasn't that called 100 year old drivers or something similar? They had Advanced Driving members sitting alongside them and giving them an honest appraisal at the end of their test. Many had ignored their families requests to stop driving so a qualified driver unknown to the driver was roped in to deliver the good/bad news.

Thats the one!

Weirdly, my insurance is less since I added 2 younger drivers to it. I lend my car to a 50yr old friend occasionally and was told my new premium would be £100 less annually. My DS is also on mine for when he visits from NZ.

Before my cataract operation last year, my eyesight was quite poor but the optician said I was just on the legal limit. I stopped driving until after the operation but it made me wonder how many others are driving with poor sight.

I think it should be 70, with compulsory eye and hearing tests, then ever 3 years thereafter.

I also think GPs should be obliged to notify DVLA of new medical conditions. At the moment it’s up to the driver to report them.

I would happily retake a test, if we could fit one in.
Whilst driving with a younger friend, in 50s, I have never felt so nervous, she was taking risky manouveres, and talking with her hands whilst driving. I know who is the safer driver, it wasn't her.
Daily travelling I see younger drivers happily speeding, going through Red lights, cutting people up on rounabouts, and having no idea how to use filter lanes. I know who is the safer driver,it's not them. One cut me up on a roundabout, my quick reactions saved us from a bad smash. Think all ages should retake a test after certain number of years.

Driving I now find complicated junctions difficult to interpret, lane changes to get to the exit I need is not always correct, it’s fine on roads I know it’s unfamiliar roads. Although night driving isn’t a problem my reaction time is not a quick as it used to be.

As for a test, on familiar roads I would find it easy because a lot of maneuvers would be familiar and automatic, on strange roads I wouldn’t be so confident

Here in New South Wales we have annual medical and eye test at 75. Then at 85 it's annual driving test.

I’d hate to have to do a test. I have never had an accident in 50 plus years driving but the thought of a test- nah. I choose carefully where I park and am very careful about lane changes. My car shrieks when someone is too close. The ones who should be taking tests are the tail gating truckers !

Driving is the 'Last Frontier' my father's doctor said after my father had a stroke. Lots of folks will drive without a license. It's a thorny problem. I am 78 and decided to stop driving for several reasons. As many of you know, it changes your life dramatically!

NotSpaghetti

Wow Chestnut!

That first one looks so ridiculous with such a simple caption!
I know I shouldn't laugh ... but...

Well I had to admit I kept the blue car because it was almost like a joke, not funny but you know what I mean. That was in the 1990s which shows how long this has been a problem.

I think 80 might be the better benchmark for a retest. After all, lots of people are still working well in to their 70's these days. I myself am 67 and still work full time in a highly responsible job. People are living much longer, are generally far healthier and have quite different lifestyles and expectations to previous generations. When I look back on 70 year olds in my childhood, they were archetypically "old" and a life expectancy of 75 was considered not a bad innings especially for a man. 70 year olds these days are quite different. 70 is the new 50 (or certainly 60) if you like.

The vast majority of these tragic cases seem to involve drivers in their 90's and that really is a different ball game entirely. It also has to be borne in mind that most deaths by road are caused by drunk or drugged drivers who are far from elderly.

Grammaretto

Bring on driverless cars?

I think that will be the answer for older folk, especially those out of town. They are not too far away.

But surely a driverless taxi would be the answer, then you just call one when required. Maybe also have the option of booking one for a weekend or longer if you need to go away. It would be the perfect solution.

This is a thorny issue. Will we all be expected to pay for these extra tests? It's expensive to pay for the vehicle, road tax, insurance, vehicle upkeep etc already. We live in a village with a very unreliable bus service (once an hour but sometimes it can be 40 minutes late or doesn't turn up at all) that stops early evening. Doctor, hospital, dental, optician and hair appointments would be impossible to plan due to the irregularity of the bus service. A taxi is £10 each way for a three mile trip. The train station isn't on a bus route.
A visit to our two children and their families would be almost two hours by bus to one and a train and taxi to Bristol for the other. There are no shops in the village so an online shop will be necessary and our weekly meet up with friends and family in the pub will be curtailed.
When we'd persuaded my father to stop driving I used to travel 18 miles each way to take him to his appointments. I was over 65 years myself then.
When it becomes necessary for both of us to stop driving we will, but our quality of life will certainly change for the worse.

Grammaretto - my son cannot renew his UK licence as he doesn't live here.
Maybe we have an arrangement with NZ.

I have in the past tried to put him on my UK insurance.

twinnytwin

This is a thorny issue. Will we all be expected to pay for these extra tests? It's expensive to pay for the vehicle, road tax, insurance, vehicle upkeep etc already. We live in a village with a very unreliable bus service (once an hour but sometimes it can be 40 minutes late or doesn't turn up at all) that stops early evening. Doctor, hospital, dental, optician and hair appointments would be impossible to plan due to the irregularity of the bus service. A taxi is £10 each way for a three mile trip. The train station isn't on a bus route.
A visit to our two children and their families would be almost two hours by bus to one and a train and taxi to Bristol for the other. There are no shops in the village so an online shop will be necessary and our weekly meet up with friends and family in the pub will be curtailed.
When we'd persuaded my father to stop driving I used to travel 18 miles each way to take him to his appointments. I was over 65 years myself then.
When it becomes necessary for both of us to stop driving we will, but our quality of life will certainly change for the worse.

Unfortunately this is why older people should retire in or around a town or city with easy access to medical care. It might be a lovely dream to retire to a village but transport will be difficult as you get older. I am right next to several buses going to the town centre and a 10 min taxi ride to doctor, dentist and hospital. I planned all this when I moved here.

It's blatant discrimination, if they used any other criteria it would be frowned on, probably illegal. The facts are the 60+ cohort are statistically the safest group, the least accidents, by contrast the under 25s have the most accidents by far so if you need to select a group for safety reasons then retest under 25s.

I have always thought this was a good idea but now at 74 the thought of taking a test terrifies me. I would be so nervous at any kind of assessment that I feel sure I would fail. if I did fail then I would be desperately needing to move house as I'm a couple of miles from the nearest village with no public transport to get there and a very limited bus service from there. Being unable to drive would cut me off completely from any sort of socialisation.