driving when older

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Pensioner-involved-fatal-M1-crash-driving-...

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

Yes....if you see an OAP driving badly, report them to DVLA.

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.

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 !

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.

"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.

Of course a 92 should be allowed to drive if they are considered fit to drive. You get 100 year olds running marathons. Beyond a certain age they should be tested more regularly but if the test is passed then they have every right to continue driving.

Oct 23, 2015 -- 6:01PM, Eeternaloptimist wrote:

Of course a 92 should be allowed to drive if they are considered fit to drive. You get 100 year olds running marathons. Beyond a certain age they should be tested more regularly but if the test is passed then they have every right to continue driving.

Thats exactly the problem, when was the last time they were passed fit to drive, this is sheer lunacy letting someone in control of a lethal weapon.

Wasnt there a story about a week ago about a 87 year old wiping out a 24 year old van driver because he drove up the wrong way on a motoway.

see above tbb from leicester mercury.

If someone young or middle aged piles up a car it's due to their bad driving.
If a geriatric does the same it's simply their age making them drive badly.

So bad driving in itself does not apply to the older driver. It's always down to their age?

I see.

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

Exactly. You want to see tales of madness and destruction then just look at the newspapers any day and limit it to the 18-30 age group. Every so often you get an older person who does something wrong. We don't read about the tales of thousands if not tens of thousands of older people who drive perfectly safely but for whom a car is a lifeline.

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.

Young Paki' drivers are the worst here in Bradford. They drive like fkin lunatics.

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

very good

@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?

I wonder how many driving test examiners would want to sit in a car with a 92 year old?

The current system is ludicrous where it is basically up to the person (unless intervention from doctor
or family) to determine if they are fit to drive.

Probably some physical test e.g. neck movement, eyesight combined with a computer based
alertness and reactions test should be established for 75 year olds and resit every 3 years.

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!

Age in itself does not make all older people bad drivers.
So as naydam points out, if you insist on regular testing of older drivers then regular testing should apply to everyone.

I make the comparison between young drivers and older drivers simply to draw attention to this obvious point.

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.

I'm a better driver at 65 than I was at 25.
(I couldn't drive at 25 )
My mother drove but never passed a test.  In the old days you just paid the money and got a licence.

'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.

Well make your mind Jack.

You've agreed then disagreed there.

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.

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

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.

I think the insurance companies know the score.

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.

criminal offence ha ha ha, ive changed my mind over 75s are ok to drive even though they did their test 60 year ago.

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.

Strange thing that. You can stop an old person driving because he is physically not up to scratch but not a young person who is mentally incapeable.
I've lost count of the number of times I've read about a carful of youngsters being killed and usually no other vehicle involved.

@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.

Oct 25, 2015 -- 10:01AM, bix wrote:

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.

Probably why the best F1 drivers often have youth on their side, but the lack of experience counters against this.

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.

your general responses slow as you get older. A medical fact.

What do you need fast responses for when you're driving?

Surely the better drivers don't drive in such a way that fast responses are ever necessary?
And there is the problem with less than mature drivers.
They drive on their brakes and their quick responses, while older drivers take far more care over their driving.   

I'd much rather be driven by an older person who knows their own limitations, than a kid who drives on his brakes.

Whilst I agree that responses do slow with age, so does the driver's speed, which helps compensate a little. From my own experiences as a driver in his 50's I also keep a healthy distance between myself and the car in front... even at 30mph. Only minor changes to driving in later years but it's the difference that insurance companies recognise and reward. I pay a few hundred pounds whilst 20+ drivers are paying thousands.

Dr C just beat me to it ^

I'm 92, and I drive around like a James Bond stunt driver. Anybody gives me grief; I just tell 'em I'm Ronnie Pickering. RONNIE PICKERING!

RAC figures

One in five young drivers (17 to 24-year-olds) will have an accident within six months of passing their test and 1,552 young drivers were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads in 2011 – more than four deaths per day.