General Chat

I agree it's ageist but maybe us older drivers no matter how experienced drivers we are need to be reassessed just to make sure we are still capable and safe drivers

I was too safe when I was learning and this was thought to be dangerous because I didn't react as others thought I would so this could be a problem

I still hang back if I'm not sure where other drivers would take the chance and move off

My thoughts are a few minutes are worth it to be safe

Sadly too many drivers are rush rush rush

As we grow older, our bodies change. What we could easily do at, say, 50 becomes a struggle at 80.

Let’s think of a few examples which would effect our driving skills

Slower reactions
Deteriorating eyesight
Night blindness inc pupils taking longer to adjust to oncoming headlights
Aches & pains in legs, arms & neck - you’ll move more slowly & carefully while looking left & right.
Deteriorating mental faculties, exactly as Shirley has described.

Add stubbornness & ‘it’s everyone else’ and the older driver is setting themselves up for an accident.

My father was forced to give up driving aged 80 when he wrote his car off. His work as a sales rep had involved driving 100s of miles a week. He genuinely was a good driver in his younger years.

We’d tried persuading him to voluntarily stop driving after several people had contacted us about his near misses etc. We even ticked the ‘have experienced (medical problems)’ when applying for a replacement license after his was lost.

Roads are far more congested than when any of us on here took our tests. Let’s hope that we can either recognise for ourselves when we become unsafe, or listen to the concerns of our younger relatives.

Hubby was a very good driver but sadly became a hazard even though he thought he was ok

I got to dread going out with him. My "I will drive " was met with "no I will"

Even my protests of I need to keep my hand in was met with no. !!

I got to dread going out with him and became the awful passenger seat driver as I just had to put my twopennuth in as sometimes I thought we would have an accident

I am a bit of a "Luddite", in some ways....

things that upset me, on the road, for example,
cars with driving lights on in daylight, with one bulb not working...
cars with driving lights that wink as they go round a corner, or roundabouts...in daylight? why?
cars that use the same lamp for sidelight and indicators....(Audis?)
cars that hog a lane of a motorway at just below the legal limit....(certain german cars are culprits here...)

cars that drive 20 mph below the limit...Ie doing 40 in a 60 zone...

will think of more later

Official statistics for 2016:

"It is clear to see from data released by Gov.uk last year, that drivers aged 20–29 pose the most risk on our roads. With dramatically higher figures than any other age group, drivers in their twenties were last year involved in 20,841 road incidents of all severities – considerably higher than any other age group and drastically greater than road incidents of all severities involving drivers aged 70–79 (3,254) and road incidents involving drivers aged 80 and over (1,939.)"

It's interesting that, say, in Portugal.people over the age of 70, have to have a driving assessment examination every 2 years - but it's free.
In the UK, it's every 3 years - and you have to pay!
Surely, the driving assessment could be included in the free health check we're offered?

Having said that, neither my sister (66 years old) nor I, have ever had, or been invited for a free health check, even though I do have a pre-existing condition - one kidney - 'discovered' 8 years ago, when I was 54.
Phoning friends and family, I've discovered another 12 people who have never had this 'important' health check, meant to take place every 5 years for those aged 40 - 74. :-(

Apparently
Armoured cars are top heavy and can flip very easy
even just clipping the Kerbs can do this
So its not right for some to shift the blame to the innocent driver
who was hit side on by his car

Also worth remember there was a baby was inside the other car
and its also rumoured he wasn't wearing his glasses

..but were his glasses for long or short sightedness?
As you get older, there is more need for glasses for seeing things close up.

Apparently he wears them for driving

Ah. A bit of a faux pas then!

on uk driving licences, in box 12....
if you have 01
then you MUST wear glasses../eyesight correction..
.while driving

According to news reports in Oz, Prince Phillip has been photographed no wearing a seatbelt just 48 hrs after the accident

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/royals/driver-unleashes-at-prince-philip-after-car-crash-duke-given-all-clear-at-hospital/news-story/ed7173235ea3d7266f98734f941607ed

on private property.... but old bill have been to have a word with the old boy...

Sorry, Bob, but the article does state that it was a public road at Sandringham

That article is in an Australian newspaper and goes against the reports here from the people who ran to help

Prince Phillip was most concerned that the others were ok

He is reported to be resting up and under observation so it's unlikely he is out driving again so soon

It's just thank good no one was killed

Edit well seems the silly old fool WAS caught driving without seat belt
He hasn't learned anything

Of course the 20-29 year olds are going to have more accidents. To start with, there’ll be more of them. Neither will they have had the opportunity of building up experience.

Statistically there will be fewer drivers in the upper age groups. Either they’ve died, recognised their physical/cognitive limitations or can no longer afford the expense of owning a car.

As a percentage I would suggest that more of upper age group drivers are likely to *cause* an accident because others have had to take avoiding action.

A compulsory re-test over a certain age, perhaps in a simulator, would be preferable. However, who would pay for it?

I had the feeling that statistics were gauged on hour-for-hour driving by older and younger drivers and not on numbers of drivers.

Put simply one older driver driving for an hour, say, is less likely to have an accident than one young driver driving for an hour.

I’m not a driver because I have had Petti mal since I was four but that does not mean that my husband did not drive an young son in laws where I have been a passenger, first the Queen I think is the only person in the country that does not have to hold a driving licence or a passport but every other royal including Prince Philip as to wearing seat belts everyone including the Queen should be seen to wearing one if for nothing else for a example that it’s the law. If this was jo blog on the local news and and all over in a few days give it a rest press and let the police do their work. Just my thoughts

JoyLouise, I’d assumed it was culled from insurance claims. :-S

Well he's in trouble again - driving on the public roads since his accident without his seatbelt on. Police have had words. :-0 Several press reports.

HM will have to have words. :-S

Edit the photo was on the Sandringham estate but he'd just turned off the public road into the estate according to the 3 articles I've just read.

Now on BBC, car can be seen turning into the estate

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46935721