Older car drivers

[Kies]

Went for a gentle ride this afternoon. Got about 6 miles out and i watched my friend get knocked off by an elderly drivers wing mirror. The only reson he missed me (10 yards back) is that the road is wider there.
Luckily my friend is ok,although i'm sure he will be sore tommorow.
My question is - should these older drivers be tested more often?
He was genuinely upset and has offered to pay for the damage

 

[vernon]

Are you expecting a consensus of opinion?

If so ask the question in the commuting forum.

 

[vernon]

Testing does nothing more than demonstrate that a driver can pass a driving test.

 

[ianrauk]

I've had more trouble with younger drivers then older ones.

 

[colly]

Depends I suppose on just how old. I was nearly made mincemeat of by an 86 yr old bloke who despite having looked right into my eyes still managed to drive into me as he pulled out of a junction.
75 should maybe require a test. But then again there are those who at any age shouldn't be allowed metal cutlery let alone drive a car.

 

[Archie_tect]

@vernon, on the first Monday in the month, at 8:30am... try it again when the examiner is fed up late on a Thursday or Friday afternoon when they've already hit their monthly pass target for the month and you can wave bye-bye to your money.

 

[Kies]

Are you expecting a consensus of opinion?

If so ask the question in the commuting forum.

Not looking for a concencus. But watching this 75+ year old take my friend out - kind of focuses the mind

 

[Salis]

Here is some useful data on this subject. As you can see from this graph, older drivers kill themselves more than normal (because they're frail and don't come out well even from minor accidents) but don't harm other people any more than you'd expect. The group who harm innocent bystanders are younger drivers (look particularly at the white triangles, which is the pedestrians and cyclists)

 

[Night Train]

There are people of all ages who could have driven likewise. It isn't necessarily down to age.

This is why I, as a driver, would strongly support regular retests for all drivers, maybe anually for the first 3 years and then 3 or 5 yearly there after. Tests should be tougher, and maybe progressively so for the first few annual tests, and any fail will require compulsory retraining.

 

[Lance Jack]

Every ten years your picture driving licence has to be renewed, perhaps you should have a driving test before it being reissued? But as vernon says, it just means you can past a test.
Through work I have picked up my Cat C & D licence. To convert them for work I have to go on a week long course for each vehicle to cover all aspects of driving it. Every three years I have to do a Highway Code type test to validate my work licence. Compare this to an elderly person who passed there (more basic) test, maybe, sixty years ago and may have had no other training since.

 

[Night Train]

Every ten years your picture driving licence has to be renewed, perhaps you should have a driving test before it being reissued? But as vernon says, it just means you can past a test.
Through work I have picked up my Cat C & D licence. To convert them for work I have to go on a week long course for each vehicle to cover all aspects of driving it. Every three years I have to do a Highway Code type test to validate my work licence. Compare this to an elderly person who passed there (more basic) test, maybe, sixty years ago and may have had no other training since.

This is the thing. You get tested but so many other drivers, who also drive for a living, don't get tested and employers don't care. I have had jobs that were not driving jobs but I often spent more hours in the car then at my desk. No one checked my driving ability, just that I had a license.
My ex wife once got a job with 40-50K pa of driving and no one interviewing her noticed, or checked, that her license was only provisional.

I have had my driving tested three times only in my 30year driving history, once for my car, once for my C+E and once for my motorbike.

 

[Arch]

I'd favour regular retesting too (as a driver who drives for work) While I agree that the test just proves you can pass a test, the prospect of it would make most people think a bit more about the bad habits they've picked up, and how road conditions have changed since they last passed.

No system will ever sift out all the bad drivers - there will always be those who find a way round, play the game. But the more people there are who drive better, the better!

I test myself with the Theory test everyso often (which didn't exist when I took my test), and some of the multi-choice answers are breath-takingly stupid. I think anyone who picks certain answers should fail on the spot (for example - you are stopped at a pedestrian crossing and an elderly person is still crossing when the lights go green. Do you a: Rev your engine to hurry them up. b: Hoot your Horn c: edge forward d: wait patiently for them to cross. Anything but d should result in failure. That's not even driving sense, it's just common courtesy!)

 

[Arch]

[QUOTE 2398100, member: 259"]We finally persuaded my father-in-law to give up the car this year. He's nearly 90 and was frankly terrifying to be in the car with when he was driving. He regularly drove the wrong way down one way streets in Belfast because they hadn't been one way in the 1950s when he first drove down them, and he sometimes used to lose the car for days on end after parking it. But having said that, he'd never actually been in an accident in all the years he drove (and rode).[/quote]

I suspect that might be because other people were good at avoiding him!

 

[BigonaBianchi]

At least your mate is ok no?....I have almost zero sympathy for bad driving....I think most agree a regular re test is a good idea....for every body not just the elderly.

There are responsible drivers out there in that age group...the IAM is full of them.

 

[Dan J B]

I live in Chichester where a very large percentage of the populace are pensioners. As a car driver I despair every day at their lack of spacial awareness or peripheral vision, but since moving from London my need to be somewhere in a hurry is no longer an issue (I have lived here for the past 10 years), however on the rare occasion I am in rush for some reason the lack of driving skill by the hatted inhabitants beggars belief!

Dan