Dilemma, should Dad still be driving?

Jane10. You are also assuming that children are nearby, and are willing to help. And that by sharing transport, everyone wants to go in the same direct! At the same time!

Jane10, you are assuming that all of us will automatically have to stop driving when we get old, why? My father drove safely and extensively until the brief illness that led to his death at 92. He is one of many.

I am not suggesting we keep driving regardless of whether we are safe or not, although the implication of your post is that this is quite acceptable while we are young and it is only elderly dangerous drivers that should be taken off the road. The elderly do not have the monopoly on becoming dangerous drivers.

The IAM runs an excellent scheme for assessing older drivers and more of us should use it and listen to its recommendations, even if they are unpalatable. I also see no reason why older drivers should not be expected to provide the results of a recent eye test when renewing their licence and a medical certificate, say every 3 years.

But remember, people always highlight when elderly unfit drivers are on the road and extend their problems to all elderly drivers. There are, proportionately far more dangerous drivers in younger age groups. Sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander.

As has been said, many elderly drivers are less dangerous than their younger counterparts.
My mum isnt dangerous. Just older. That doesnt make her dangerous. No bumps or scrapes etc for decades. All health aspects ok to drive.

I think the bottome line to all of this, is that we dont trust doctors to decalre someone fit to drive. I am beginning to think that we should.

So what to do then? Keep driving even though you know its potentially dangerous to others? What did people think would happen when they could no longer drive? Get organised in advance. Think about joining with others and sharing transport or get your children to help a bit more or move house before access to shops etc becomes a big problem. We're all getting older. Make plans! Sorry to seem harsh but its not an unforeseeable issue.

I did the figures for my mum fairly recently. I had cheerfully assumed, calculating the trips she actually did, that the money saved on everything to do with running her car[not including the money from selling it] would pay for at least two taxis a week. I didnt. It came out to about 1 and 3/4 journeys a week in her particular case. One factor that influenced her to carry on driving.

Let us see this in perspective. The results of a research project published recently showed that older drivers are far less likely to have accidents than drivers younger than them.

This was even true when the figures were adjusted for the lower mileage driven by the average older driver. Accidents involving older drivers were more likely to be serious, but given that they have far fewer accidents anyway they still, overall are less likely to have a serious accident either.

It is fine to say that the money invested in cars and spent running them will pay for a lot of taxis, but this assumes that all one's car journeys are single destination journeys; home-supermarket-home, home-surgery-home. Living in a rural area my weekly journey to my local town will go: visit tip, which I pass on the way, to get rid of some rubbish, deliver box to charity shop in town, park at supermarket, shop there and in town, drive to small retail park on outskirts of town to visit shed there, call in at farm shop to buy local organic meat, home. We both always try to cram in as many errands as possible on each car journey.

It is worth also remembering that taxis are VERY expensive. A round taxi trip to my local town (5 miles away) will cost over £20.

FlickertyB I cannot believe what your optician said. As I said before, I was diagnosed with glaucoma, I had to tell the DVLA this. They said I couldn't drive again until I had the all clear from their appointed optician. I took them 3 months and several phone calls to get it sorted. They returned one form because I hadn't answered a question on one page that I had already answered on the previous page, that took 4 weeks. This needs standardising, with an eye test of all drivers over 75 and an assessment of the drivers capabilities. I know that sounds harsh, to loose the freedom driving gives but we have to consider other people using the roads too. It is a dilemma.

Depends how much the car is worth, of course. If my car was written off by the insurance company, the savings in tax and insurance in my case would be around £1 a day. Which would possibly get me to the supermarket and back once a fortnight...

Selling a car and not having to pay insurance and road tax pays for a lot of taxis if no other public transport available.....

After my first cataract operation I was very careful driving until I got new glasses because, although the surgeon told me the prescription lens now in my eye corrected my short sight as well as the cataract and meant my eyesight was up to standard, I still worried a bit.

When I had my eye test and described my fears to the optician he dismissed them telling me that I could be blind in one eye and have tunnel vision in the other and still be able to drive if the tunnel vision eye was strong enough to read the eye chart satisfactorily.

I found this rather frightening.

One of the worse 'unsafe' older drivers scenarios I've experienced was when visiting a couple as a DN.
On their driveway was a totalled new Jag. He'd had a stroke paralysing his left side, she was blind in her right eye and had had a stroke also affecting her left side so......
He sat in the driving seat operating the accelerator and brake and steering, she sat straddling the central console on a cushion with her right foot on the clutch and she changed gears.

They would happily drive around Bath until the day they couldn't negotiate a keep left island, and so they drove right over it and into a bus coming towards them. Both had fairly serious injuries hence my visiting.

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard this, it had been going on for 4 years and no one had ever stopped them - they were well known in the village and considered 'eccentric'!

They'd written off two other cars in the previous three years! Why on earth hadn't the family/police done something!

My car was recently written off as Total Loss after it was hit by a "nearly ninety"driver, who joined the main road from a side road and said she didn't see me.
A couple of years ago, while waiting to park in a shopper's car-park, an elderly driver reversed into my car, despite my frantic car-horn tooting, he didn't even slow down.
I'm now wondering when the next elderly person's going to drive into me, having survived a near-miss when a driver turned off main road. I'm wishing I'd taken the registration number, since someone told me recently about an acquaintance, known to be blind in one eye and only able to drive as his wife sits in passenger-seat giving him instructions.

Another friend told me of an elderly gentleman who was visited by police after an accident, and asked him to step outside and read a number-plate - he failed, and was stopped from driving.

I'm over 70 and disabled myself, with sympathy for elderly drivers, but I think we should all be aware that we may have to stop driving before we'd like to, and particularly if someone mentions it, otherwise it's dangerously selfish.

Lovely post lacwhedy.
My mum is not quite your age, but is thinking about replacing her car with as near a replica of her old one as she can find. Might that be an option for you?

I have just given up driving at 90 but only as my old car gave up first. Newer cars are very different to handle and so have decided to call it a day, After 65 years of driving without any real accidents.
Its a pity as I am still a volunteer with charity which I have done for over 40 years after 4 years as a WAAF during the war.
Taxis are not the answer but the only alternative/ So I keep going or wobblying along Alice

I find it appalling that there are no rules for regular sight tests for all drivers.
They should make all drivers prove they have a sight test, say every two years and even more frequently for the over sixties.

Oh, yes, the IAM assessment is purely advisory, I did not mean to suggest anything else, but it is at least a good way to keep check on one's driving capacity and to take in hand early any bad habits that may be developing.

My father drove until shortly before his death at the age of 92. He regularly drove to my sister or my house. A journey of 100 miles to each. At 88 he drove from the south coast to York for DGS's wedding and then did a touring holiday of Yorkshire before returning home.

(and of course it's not just that you can see a number plate, it's a guide as to how keen your eyesight is in various driving situations)

I'm amazed that an eye test isn't compulsory for drivers over 70 when they have to renew their licences.

When I took my driving test you had to be able to see a number plate from a certain distance with or without glasses, but it seems no such check is made ever again.

Of course he should. Just heard that the writer of Abide with me said he wanted to burn out and not rust out. A good maxim for the 80+ generation which I will be in 4 years time.

I think that an eye test should be required before a renewed licence is issued. It is very important to be able to see properly. As we get older we don't necessarily notice 'problems'. I was diagnosed with glaucoma yet I'd noticed nothing but it did need treatment and regular check ups. We both did the Later Life assessment offered by our County Council. It was very interesting but we were ok to carry on.

FB, I did check out the IAM website, I saw that is was advisory.

I did not know about the assessment, and will sort of suggest it to the other half. Since he has had his cataract repaired he appears to be extra cautious, not sure if that is because he can see so much better not! He admits himself that he would rather not drive long distances, so we just use the car locally, and for those things within a 10 mile radius. My daughter worries about him more than I do, probably because she sees less of him, and notices any differences, whereas they are inclined to grow on you when you are with people all the time.

@pompa - I didn't mention one other thing about the mature driver assessment; the assessor will suggest what the driver needs to do to make his/her driving safer - and of course there is no 'pass' or 'fail' involved.

Soontobe, he`s convinced now that a doctor has said it, that he is perfectly fit to drive, and won`t be swayed in any other direction. As far as he`s concerned, if a doctor says it`s so, it must be so.

numberplease. Interesting that your husband's doctor said that he was perfectly able to drive.

In other walks of life, in other situations, a doctor's advice is taken over a lay person's. Fair enough I think.
But when it comes to driving, as a society, we are sometimes reluctant to take the doctor's advice.

I dont know exactly what I am trying to say. Trust the doctor??