driving when older

http://news.sky.com/story/1575056/elderly-driver-ploughs-car-into-shoppers

Didn't relise he was 92....his family should be put in the dock for not stopping him !

Toddler flown to hospital with facial injuries after car 'driven by 92-year-old man' hits at least seven shoppers in town centre crash 'flinging them into the air'

Vehicle crashed into pavement at around 10:30am this morning

Accident happened next to shopping centre in busy town centre street

A 13-month-old girl and another victim were flown to a London hospital

At least five other people have been taken to local hospitals

A 13-month-old girl is thought to be among the worst injured after a car crashed onto a busy town centre pavement this morning.
Witnesses said the little girl and a two-year-old boy were thrown from their pushchairs when the VW, said to have been driven by a 92-year-old man, mounted the curb in Guildford, Surrey.

The little girl and a man in his 60s were flown by separate air ambulances to St George's Hospital, south London and a woman with leg injuries was taken by road ambulance to the same hospital. All three are said to be in a serious condition.

A lot of very safe older drivers with a lower accident rate than younger people.  However there should be retests more frequently.  You can go down hill quickly and not realise it.  We had to tell my Dad that he shouldn't drive again.

"If you're looking to save lives then you should focus more on younger drivers."

Agree, but fact is there are lots of people who shouldn't be on the road, some of which are in their twenties, but also a 92-y-o should never be behind the wheel of a car.

see above tbb from leicester mercury.

As you get older your reactions naturally get slower.
Should be an annual retest from 70 onwards.

Reactions to what gets slower?
Their reactions to other people's bad driving?

Older people generally drive a lot more carefully than the boy racers who the insurance companies load with high premiums.

If the old timers were causing more accidents the insurance companies would hit them as well.

There IS one good one Kenny. He's the guy who sits all the tests for 'em! 

@DrC nobody saying any different.
Of course there are thousands of older careful drivers but that doesn't mean we should just ignore those that are, for want of a better phrase, past it.
Not sure why you keep wanting to bring young people into the argument?

Why not have EVERYBODY resit every three years? Minimal cost if you pass. I don't like the thought of being on the road with some of the clueless women I've seen on telly!

In my experience.
hot kids in hatch backs
van drivers
chelsea tractors
bmw drivers(but quite honestly any powerful car which they think is an F1 car and treat the roads like a race track)
all these I have found to be inconsiderate or frankly dangerous drivers

old women out shopping and some women incredibly poor in traffic and parking but not much danger as it is such low speed stuff.Yet that woman wiped out a few the other day(what speed ?)

the latest I saw was a woman in a range rover on the phone smoking a ciggie swooping into a parking space in local supermarket at speed
amazing stuff

but my big question is why are so many powerful cars produced - after all we have a 70 speed limit so you only need a trabant or morris minor to get around ha ha!!!   0 - 60  4.1 secs and all that.

'Age in itself does not make all older people bad drivers. '

True, of course.  But the decrease in physical and mental ability that goes with ageing does.

You could say that being young makes someone a poor driver because the young take too many chances at the wheel and are exhilarated by speed.

And working people take chances at the wheel because they're always in a hurry.
None of that applies to older folk.
You see, you can pick on any group and single them out for special attention.

Youngsters drive like idiots because, as we all did you think your invincible at that age. I honestly don't think you realise how quickly you can deteriorate when your 75 plus. If there was a camera fitted to some of these older people's dashboard's and they watched it back i think they would be horrified at their standard of driving.

so you dont think that you should be tested to see if your sight or other ailments are hindering your driving when elderly.

No more than any other group.
Don't you have to declare if your eyesight is impaired

''If you've had or currently suffer from a medical condition or disability that may affect your driving you must tell the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA). You also need to provide details if you develop a new condition or disability or if an existing condition worsens.

If you already have a driving licence and need to tell DVA of a new or worsening medical condition or disability, you must tell them right away and not wait until your licence is due for renewal.

Failure to inform DVA is a criminal offence and is punishable by a fine of up to £1,000.''

So you see it's all been covered.

The insurance companies know which drivers have the most accidents. It is a medical fact that the part of the brain which deals with risk assessment does not fully develop in males until about 25.

@DrC
Possibly a resit is a bit extreme but an annual medical designed specifically for this situation would be ideal.
BTW it's not all been covered. Ask the relatives of those killed by Harry Clark.
And the reason we are singling this group out is that no matter how fit you keep yourself your general responses slow as you get older. A medical fact.

Hound-Dog-2 23 Oct 15 15:49 Joined: 01 Dec 11 | Topic/replies: 1,585 | Blogger: Hound-Dog-2's blog
At 92 he should never have been driving, I personally feel that is way too old to be behind the wheel of a car. And people should be save walking on the pavement.  92-year-old should never be driving !

I'm pretty sure it was a woman driving (89 years old) the passenger was 92. I was in Guildford half an hour before the crash in that same spot and saw who could only be that woman (in a silver hatchback) parked up outside burger King trying to reverse around the corner and up the hill on a one way street. She hadn't a f&^(ing clue what she was doing. In hindsight I wish I had called the police, even if it wasn't her who drove into those people. Pretty sure it was though.