Watching comedienne Jo Brand presenting the ITV programme "Driving Me Crazy", I couldn't help but agree with her view that over 80's should be compulsorily re-tested in order to get their driving license.
It is a view I have held personally for some time, but one statistic that Jo Brand reported is the single most important reason of the lot.
"Over 70's have more accidents per mile driven than any other age group, including teenagers"
It's a fact that the man from Age Concern chose to ignore and indeed, he lied by claiming that over 70's were the safest drivers, which made any other comments he made seem ridiculous.
I don't want to take pensioners licenses away and I don't want to restrict their freedom. but if a teenager, who is required to pass a test at 17 in order to get in to a car, and let's not forget that a car is a dangerous weapon, then why should a pensioner be assumed to be safe at 80, 90 or even 100 to drive a car without any kind of test to prove they are up to the task ?
1 comment:
Statistics should be put into context.
The over 70s tend not to drive long distances on the safest roads (per mile) motorways.
Instead they mainly drive on the "least safe" local roads, so their accident rate per mile is bound to be higher.
They get lower insurance charges because they drive fewer miles in total and their accident rates per year are lower than young drivers.
Because their bodies are less robust they unfortunately have a greater chance of death or serious injury in an accident than a younger body.
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