mature drivers facing compulsory driving re-tests?

One of my dearest friends was killed 5 years ago by a woman of 70+ who mounted the pavement and drove into her at speed. She had apparently been diagnosed as having a neurological condition but had not reported to the DVLA when she renewed her license at 70.She said that she had a “muscular spasm and her foot slipped”
She caused such devastation to the family . My friend was a true matriarch in so many ways and supported so many people. There has to be a way of making a mandatory medical both physical and cognitive along with eyesight that is reported to the DVLA before the renewal at 70 and repeated three yearly. If the driver has to pay for it so be it .
But I agree public transport needs to be improved and cheaper. Although bus journeys are free for pensioners..
My brother lives near a small market town and he says on market day the number of very anxious elderly people driving in from the surrounding villages is frightening.

grandmabatty I fully agree with you

Catterygirl

I don’t think driving tests are particularly necessary. More, proof of eyesight capabilities.

I don't think it's remotely likely that every 70+ year old will have to do a driving test - there just aren't enough testers. However, eye tests would be easy to administer and record. If anybody is pulled up by the police, it would be easy to check on the central records whether somebody should have been wearing glasses.

I don’t think driving tests are particularly necessary. More, proof of eyesight capabilities.

Grantanow

If Labour want to lose the next GE then attacking the rights of older drivers would be a good start: pensioners vote.

There are many reasons Labour might lose the next general election, but I doubt that stopping people with poor eyesight from driving will be one of them.

Grantanow

If Labour want to lose the next GE then attacking the rights of older drivers would be a good start: pensioners vote.

It's not about attacking pensioners. It's about making sure we/they are safe on the roads.

If they want to do something about the danger from older drivers ( which I now realise is a problem after seeing that graph) they will have to do something about young drivers, too, or it will look a bit age’ist.I read that the government are going to remove the ban on cutting back trees and hedgerows during the nesting season, which annoyed me until I remembered how I’d complained last year about how dangerous it is that the lack of pruning has meant that many road signs are obscured. And pot holes need to be sorted, as there are now potholes on motorways too, although I believe they have set aside a lot of money for repairs.

If Labour want to lose the next GE then attacking the rights of older drivers would be a good start: pensioners vote.

NotSpaghetti

Just an aside -

I am shortsighted and wear glasses and yesterday I looked up my driving licence on a Government website.

It clearly states I'm entitled to drive "with eye correction".

I hadn't seen this on my actual licence.

Wow! I just looked up mine too. It's amazing how much information is linked - postcode, NI number, DOB. I have the note about eyesight correction too - I think there was a box I ticked when I applied to renew my licence when I turned 70 earlier this year. With so much personal information available on various government websites, I don't know how anybody manages to slip under the radar .

Just an aside -

I am shortsighted and wear glasses and yesterday I looked up my driving licence on a Government website.

It clearly states I'm entitled to drive "with eye correction".

I hadn't seen this on my actual licence.

Sorry, you’ve answered that already.

Do the figures relate to just accidents or accidents in which there are fatalities?

I’m going to book an assessment with the IAM. It costs @ £85.

The paper doesn’t discuss that. I do note that:

KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver have a peak on weekdays from 10am to 4pm.

KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver make up a much higher proportion of all KSI casualties during the day, specifically between 10am and 3pm. It is worth noting that the proportion of casualties are very low in the early hours of the morning and late in the evening.

Both those statements suggest that older drivers are avoiding night and peak time driving so darkness and heavy volume of traffic are not factors.

53% of KSIs in collisions involving at least one older car driver occurred on rural roads and 44% occurred on urban roads.

21% of older car driver KSI casualties were in single vehicle collisions.

The most common contributory factors assigned to both older car drivers and other car drivers was ‘failed to look properly’. Older car drivers were more likely to have factors relating to ‘failure to judge other person’s path or speed’, and ‘illness or disability’ than other car drivers involved in collisions.

I’d guess that the jump in KSI accidents relates both to diminishing health and that women may (as you say) be driving more after the loss of a spouse. It’s possible in couples who did most things together, that the woman hardly drove at all before that, men often taking the role of primary driver.

Longitudinal studies by the ONS shows the median age for becoming a widow is 75 so that would correlate exactly with the sharp rise shown on the graph.

I wonder why that is? Given that women tend to outlive men might it be due to women staring to drive more in their mid seventies because they’ve been widowed?

I should add those are KSI statistics meaning killed or seriously injured.

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: older driver factsheet, 2023 Published 26 September 2024

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-older-and-younger-driver-factsheets-2023/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-older-driver-factsheet-2023

The number of accidents involving older female drivers over the age of 75 is significant as is both female and males drivers over the age of 85.

Young people, mostly men cause most deaths Maybee as I said earlier, recklessness is very often the cause, you can’t test for that.
But you can test older people for inability, physical frailty, dementia and dislike of specific roads/driving in the dark etc.
Every accident, particularly a fatality is worth reasonable prevention methods.
If a family member doesn’t report one of their family, if you are 100% sure of the facts, you can.

What are the statistics that show that older drivers are responsible for more road deaths than younger people? Maybe, if it becomes a legality that someone over 70 had to prove that they have had an eye or medical test it should incorporate family members who choose to ignore that their relative should no longer be driving. Eg I knew someone who knew his mother had glaucoma but didn’t stop her from driving which infuriated me at the time. Isn’t there a problem with older people who return to or take up riding motor bikes in middle age? A doctor friend who was very easy going about just about everything and did some pretty adventurous things throughout his life always hated motor bikes because of the deaths and injuries.

Exactly growstuff.

Allira

^In Scotland, eye tests are free. Are they not already free in the rest of the UK?^

Yes, I believe so but perhaps it's the cost of spectacles which might put people off. It can be extortionate.

The cost of running a car can be extortionate too - and the human cost of injuring or killing somebody can't even be calculated.

Young kids struggle to get driving tests as it is. My grandson was lucky in that he was in a situation where has was able to put his name down for cancellations so I don’t see how they’d be able to start testing over 70’s too. I’ve never liked driving on motorways and our family life evolved in that my husband did holiday driving and long distance stuff and I did shopping, children’s taxi service ( not just my kids but, as a night owl I was always picking the village kids up after parties and concerts etc). My partner, who, as a rep has driven all over the country’ says he feels perfectly safe with me driving ( unlike with his uber confident ex wife who drove very very fast). I’m very old school, try to be courteous to other drivers, give way to people, watch out for kids and dogs and cats. And yet I feel I’m being pressurised into not driving ( something that would cause major problems, not just with my life but with my families, too. No more child minding or dog sitting). We adapt our lives as we get older in many ways. Just avoiding driving at night or on motorways shouldn’t mean that we can’t drive to the shops or the park. Our eyesight and reaction times can’t possibly be as good as when we were young. But that is counter balanced by our experience. I do think that we should have official medical and eye tests, though. I have to wear distance glasses for driving even though I don’t see any difference in my distance vision until I put the glasses on. I even need my car to go to the post office now that so many rural ones have been closed down.

In Scotland, eye tests are free. Are they not already free in the rest of the UK?

Yes, I believe so but perhaps it's the cost of spectacles which might put people off. It can be extortionate.

Over 70s, not over 80s.

BlueBelle

Yes definitely everyone over retirement age should be re examined and any illnesses or defects should be reported straight to DVLA not left to the person to report as we know older people sometimes don’t see or recognise their own lessening abilities
I knew an elderly lady who drove straight after a stoke, a man with Alzheimer’s driving and someone who can’t remember where they are going these are not close friends that I could speak to but their families need to

These instances do not mean that e everyone over 80 should be re-examined.

Whst it does mean thst everyone, possibly over the age of 40, should have an eyesight test at least every two years and any problems which cannot be resolved with spectacles should be discussed and, if necessary, reported by the eye specialist to the DVLA. It also means that anyone (not just over 70s), who has been diagnosed with a medical condition rendering them unfit to drive should have their licence revoked. Sometimes these medical problems can be resolved with the correct medication.

There are many perfectly fit over 70s and there are many under 70s who should not be driving.