Forum Topic

News this morning.

Discussion on stopping over 75 yr old's from driving and taking away their driving license.  Some idiot saying the older you get you can't drive as well and cause more accidents.

Barbara Stevens ● 87d6 Comments

Well that's an off point tangent. The thread is about driving in old age not care home failures.

Andy Pike ● 86d

Unfortunately eyesight and reactions tend to worsen let alone hearing as you age.  In our experience with one set of parents - only one drove and that unfortunately was the one who had everything wrong with his eyes in old age and had to give up driving. So it was taxis and hospital transport for years until we started to help by accompanying.  It can be a long way to walk when finding one's way through hospitals in itself is a trek along a coloured line and drop off points and Blue Badge spaces are hard to find.  Wheelchairs were never at the entrance and I remember having to walk the length of several floors before finding one.  The seats at the entrance while I did this were often filled with individuals - patients, visitors and staff - smoking.  The elderly population is growing fast and it seems that not only are there not enough alternatives for getting them to and from appointments but many have never ever planned for getting older and being less independent.  There is no hospital transport in many places and that is often not suitable for the elderly or less well when it can take hours and hours going round the houses delivering everyone else in order to get them home. Those particular parents never seemed to think it was worth their while learning how to use the mobile phone we gave them after all our research in choosing a talking one and setting it up with shortcuts to particular numbers.  One parent did all the seeing and the other all the hearing - and that worked quite well for them - until there was only the one.  By that time it was definitely too late to learn how to use the requested mobile phone (the respite care home only seemed to have one phone line and that was constantly in use- and they didn't have enough staff... Not enough staff - something that seems to be a problem everywhere - and this is despite all the questions that had been asked beforehand and all the assertions that there was an en suite shower room (pointless when there isn't the help necessary)...  Everyone also all had TVs in their own rooms and those in the communal day room were those who did not speak - a terrible disappointment for a blind person who wanted to talk to others. We should all try and take the greatest care of our hearing and eyesight by attending all our regular appointments and wearing any necessary hearing aids and glasses - particularly as they now reckon that not doing so can lead to dementia.  I don't know why this took them so long as they have said for years that MEMORY IS MULTI-SENSORY - as every good teacher should know!

Philippa Bond ● 86d

I agree Michael a lot can happen in 3 years post 70 and I think their should be some sort of fitness to drive box on your annual medical.Whilst at 70 I think I'm a better driver than I was at 20 ( more considerate  etc) I know I'm not as sharp as I was at 30, 40 or 50. There is a natural process of decay built in.I remember having had a nightmare drive with my father in law across the hills of Northumberland reluctantly taking his keys off him and selling the car, he was about 75 at the time and his judgement of braking distances, when to pull out or not was clearly severely impaired. Basically he was an accident waiting to happen.I have told my son if he ever feels unsafe when I'm driving he is to do the same.

Andy Pike ● 87d

At the moment one has to renew a driving licence every three years from the age of 70 and attest you're not suffering from certain conditions including not having eyesight issues. I believe if one has certain conditions a doctor might be required to notify the DVLA, not sure about that? Interesting, after my cataract operations I no longer needed glasses for driving and when I renewed my licence it did get me to double check that I'd ticked the correct box as it was the first time since I was 17 I didn't need glasses to drive ...I've seen discussions about tests for over 70s because, as David points out, the statistics show accidents increase with age past about 70, but the current testing system couldn't support more tests; more likely one might be obliged to have an annual medical (which no doubt one would be charged for), that would seem sensible? 

Michael Ixer ● 87d

"Some idiot saying the older you get you can't drive as well and cause more accidents."It appears to be true according to this report, apart from people aged between 17 and 24 (of course).(Reported road casualties in Great Britain: older driver factsheet, 2022)

David Ainsworth ● 87d

Not sure about the 75 bit but seems sensible to make people get tested regularly after a certain age. Or does that happen already?

Michael Brigo ● 87d