Older drivers. Should we take a test at 75?

I think slow driving as mentioned before can be as dangerous as going fast, indeed the police will haul you up for going at snail’s pace, and in many cases slow drivers are elderly. With slow driving tailbacks occur and drivers get agitated, trying to overtake and possibly crashing into oncoming traffic.
Of course an elderly person is more likely to drive slowly because their reactions or eyesight are not great and therefore they feel safer going slowly. Certainly these drivers need to take a test.

MayBee70 I can remember a tragic case, many years ago, where a young mechanic took the car he’d been working on out for a test drive, but forgot his glasses. Instead of going back for them, he carried on and hit and killed a pedestrian and was later jailed for manslaughter.

Some people are saying that it is not older drivers that cause accidents - young men are the main culprits. It is true that young men can be very reckless and are more likely to be involved in serious accidents. However, older drivers can and do cause accidents. This can be directly as in the case of this lady, or people who drive the wrong way on motorways or dual carriageways or even, in the case of one man, by driving an invalid carriage on a dual carriageway. It can also be indirectly by slower reactions or inappropriately slow driving. This can be so infuriating that other drivers take risks to get past them that they might not otherwise have taken. Of course, this is not all elderly drivers and many are as safe as they always have been, but it is a significant and growing problem as we are an ageing population and there are many more older drivers than ever before.

If you need driving glasses but don’t wear them it must surely invalidate your insurance? When I had my latest distance glasses my optician said I was still ok wearing my previous pair but I had to wear them when driving.

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

I heard a traffic policeman on TV tell a group of young males aged between 19 and 24 that they were more likely to die as a result of driving, either themselves or one of their peers, than any other reason. So it is not just the elderly.
It would be easy enough for the DVLA to insist on evidence of a recent sight test for older people at the very least.

I never drive further than 10 miles from home and that is only on roads I know. I would happily use public transport if it were available.

Being a nervous driver doesn’t necessarily make someone an unsafe driver imo. I’ve been in cars with uber confident drivers and felt terrified!

If you’re a nervous driver then maybe you shouldn’t be driving. As someone said if new drivers can’t get a test for months there’s no point adding extra pressure on the system.

Greenfinch

I think it is a good idea but if it is brought in I would give up driving immediately. I am a safe but nervous driver and in a test would be a bundle of nerves and unable to function sensibly.

That’s me, too. But, and I’m sure most of us are the same, I’m very aware of other people on the road and always know if someone is going to do something supposedly unpredictable eg I’ll often say to my partner about a car we’re following ‘ they’re going to turn off aren’t they’ even though they aren’t slowing down. Or ‘that driver didn’t even see us did they’. Maybe that’s what makes me so nervous?

The driver in the news story had senile dementia. She had no awareness of the tragic death she had caused.
I wish someone had reported her long before this happened and her car keys had been confiscated.

I also think a proper test after a certain age should be introduced and if the thought of this frightens people, so be it.

Although having said all that, I'm sure it's not old ladies who are the cause of most accidents. It is young men.

No one is mentioning the expense, and the fact that some people are already having to travel hundreds of miles to get their first driving test. It's probably a good idea but how can it be made to work?

Years ago my mother went to stay with her cousin who was in his 60s. He picked her up from the station and she had a terrifying ride to his house as he seemed to have no idea that there was anyone else on the road. She then discovered that his diabetes had left him almost blind and he was basically navigating from memory. His family stopped him driving after that. On the other hand My neighbour (who was a pretty dreadful driver) was stopped by his doctor and started riding a bicycle instead. A couple of months later he was killed on the road, but at least no one else was hurt.

On paper looks sensible, in reality you wouldn't get a Test.
Only recently there was a Radio review on getting spaces for Driving tests. Add any one over 70, you would probably have to wait about 2 - 3 years before you could get a Test appointment.
Might be more sensible to have a few driving lessons from an Instructor who makes sure your up to date.

Thanks for all your replies.
My long and considered post has just vanished with Aw Snap

I’m in favour of ongoing driving assessments from (say) 75, but unless someone is so unsafe as to fail one completely, I think they should be just assessments with recommendations.
I consider myself a competent driver, doing 15,000 miles every year on every sort of road, but as I have white coat syndrome, totally unreasonably, having an official test where my license would be at risk would scare me witless!

I agree a test at 70, 75 and 80, I would have no compunction taking the appropriate steps if I felt someone was dangerous, I did it to my Mum. I’d never forgive myself if I could’ve stopped an accident.

I think it is a good idea but if it is brought in I would give up driving immediately. I am a safe but nervous driver and in a test would be a bundle of nerves and unable to function sensibly.

Musicgirl

I have thought this for many years. There are many more cars on the road these days and driving conditions are definitely worse than when I passed my test. If it was the law, we would all know it was coming. Reactions, eyesight and physical strength generally decline as we get older and we are not always aware of it. I would propose the first retest at 70, then 75 and after that 80. After the age of eighty, I think it should be an annual test. There could be a two strikes policy for each test so that if you fail one test you get a chance to retake it. If a second test is failed, then you could be offered the opportunity of a course of lessons with the test at the end being the final chance, or you could decide that this is the time to give up driving. Public transport needs to be improved at the same time otherwise, sadly. there will be more tragedies like this one - there have been several like this in the past, unfortunately.

I agree that it would be a good idea to have one at 70, then every 5 years, then annually after 80, with the two strike policy Musicgirl outlined.

My mother drove until she was 97, and would not stop, saying she was just as good as she was when she started. I only solved it by making an appointment for her with her optician and telling them my worries about her driving.

I think some people of that age can't make a rational decision about it, and having compulsory tests would prevent them going on driving too long.

The thought of having to take a test terrifies me. I’d be lost without my car. I only travel to look after my grandchildren in the holidays or babysit at night. Take my dog to the vets. Go for eg eye tests ( the next town isn’t on a direct bus route). With my partner being bashed and bruised I’m having to drive him to the doctors. I’ve never really driven on fast roads with slip roads ( I hate slip roads). I would have thought a proper medical including an eye test would suffice? Or having to prove that an eye test has been taken recently ( note to self, need to get one booked soon).I’m sure older drivers cause far fewer accidents than 17 year olds who are uber confident and who I always make allowances for when they speed through my village. When my partner had to go to A&E on Saturday it cost him £50 in taxi fares and neither of us like using public transport these days as we’re worried about covid.

I gave up driving voluntarily a few years back because I felt my eyesight wasn’t good enough but so many older people seem unable to accept that their sight and reflexes have deteriorated. I think M0nica’s idea is a good one.

I think a test at 70, then 75 and then 80 is a good idea . And I think it’s a good idea to have a few refresher lessons prior to the test .
Where I live there’s a big elderly population and some of them definitely shouldn’t be driving .
My mother decided herself that she shouldn’t be driving about 3 years ago aged 86 .

All those wanting to be re-tested, I assume that includes the theory test as well?

None of us had to do that one when we were 17.

I’m 75 - I’d be happy to take a test. I’d have some lessons first to make sure I’m up to date. I did a speed awareness course a few years ago. I learned a lot - I’d been caught doing 36 in a 30 zone. I’d genuinely thought I was in a 40 zone.

I wonder if we should all resit our tests, not just at 75. I passed my test when I was 18, that’s a long time ago.

YorkLady

Prince Phillip was 97 when he had an accident in his car!!!!

Exactly!

My Mother in law was sensible enough to know when to stop driving, unlike someone else we know who had numerous crashes and was later discovered to have limited eyesight or capacity.

This recent case does make a case for cognitive assessment.

Mental alertness, or its lack, is the main cause of driving failure. It leads people to make the kind of errors this lady met. That and poor eyesight.

I think when you renew your licence each three years you should have to submit a copy of a current eye test, taken within three months of the application date.

The eye test requirment could be brought in almost immediately for next to no cost. Cognition tests could be administered in the doctor;' surgery by a nurse.

I had to do them twice last year when I was erroneously diagnosed with a stroke. I got full marks each time. I do not find it a coincidence that having done so well in the cognition tests, twice in the last three months, Tow people I have seperately given a lift to have said how safe they found my driving, they were presumably expecting me not to be safe driver because of my age. I am 80.

My father was driving quite safely in his 90s. He was full mentally alert and an active member of three local groups. He still organised outings for the NT, was the major domo at his local church, organising all the funerals weddings etc, and leafleting and campaigning for the political party he supported.

I do understand people's concerns because i was the victim when an elderly man, clearly not fit to be driving, drove into my car and did serious damage. I was on a roundabout drivng at about 20mph, he was doing about 10mph and I was clearly visible for several hundred yards, yet on his accident report said he did not see me and said I had come onto the roundabout at speed from an access road that I had not been on