Jayne Dowle: Why older drivers should be put to the test

I WOULD rather give birth to both my children and sit my Finals than do my driving test again. It was just about the most stressful and frightening thing I have ever had to do.

I passed – on the fourth attempt – when I was 25, so I’ve been driving for almost two decades now. I hope I am still behind the wheel for another two. And another two after that.

So you might wonder why I support this idea of some kind of regulation for elderly drivers, suggested by a Whitehall advisory group looking into the growing numbers of over-60s on the roads.

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I’ll tell you why. And it’s not because I want to see older people driven off the roads. I’d rather be stuck behind a mature lady pottering to the shops any day than tail-gated by some cocky 17-year-old. No, it’s because my dad is coming up to 69 this year. He is still a patient, safe and steady driver. But I have a mortal fear of him being in a car crash with my mother and losing them both at once. So it is for him, and for all the other parents and grandparents like him, that I think we should start to adopt a realistic attitude towards older drivers.

With every year that passes, we all get closer to that category. The debate is where the line should be drawn.

What is clear is that the proportion of over-70s who drive soared to almost 60 per cent in 2010 from just 15 per cent in 1970. Eight out of 10 people between the age of 60 and 69 hold licences and are expected to carry on for the next 20 years, so the numbers are just going to grow. Pensioners behind the wheel, it’s the stuff of daft sitcoms and quirky news stories, isn’t it? Victor Meldrew going the wrong way up a dual carriageway. Some daffy old lady deciding to execute a three-point turn on the hard-shoulder of the M62. But it is not so funny when it happens in real life, as it did to my friend’s grandparents who died together in their eighties in a road accident in Cambridgeshire. The old chap tried to join the motorway and misjudged the speed of a lorry coming towards him. That was it. The family have never got over the shock.

Under current law, licences must be renewed at the age of 70, and every three years after that. The onus is on the driver to self-certify as to being fit to drive.

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But you know as well as I do that many motorists, and I’m not just talking about older people here, delude themselves into thinking they are the best drivers in the world when, in fact, they are not.

No one is a perfect driver, everyone has something to learn. And as we get older, we have to keep pace with changing practice. And that is another reason why I support not only testing, but the idea of refresher courses and voluntary assessment.

I attended a speed awareness course last year – it was either that or three points on my licence for exceeding a 30mph limit – and it was one of the most useful and productive mornings I have ever spent in a classroom. Even my husband says I am a safer driver these days. He reckons that I much more aware of how fast I am going, especially on motorways. Should there really be a mandatory “test” though? Much as I dread the thought, and much as I hate the idea of sweating my way through any kind of examination, I can see the argument for introducing some kind of proper pass or fail mechanism. Much as I also like the idea of refresher courses and voluntary assessment, it would be very difficult to persuade certain individuals to take part. Indeed, I would never have volunteered to find a “spare” morning to do that speed awareness course; I only did it because it was either that or three points on my licence and increased insurance premiums.

If your elderly father is a truculent soul, can you imagine sitting down with him and gently pointing out that his eyesight is not as good as it was, his reaction times are slowing down, and the arthritis in his hands might be preventing him from gripping the steering wheel with as much strength as required to steer a car safely?

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Then, when you’ve got that hurdle over with, talking him to going on a driving refresher course with a room full of other pensioners, all of whom he will consider to be significantly older and more doddery than he is?

So, useful as they might be, relying entirely on such courses to help drivers to judge their own ability would only work in an ideal world. Develop and introduce them, by all means. Anything which encourages us to be safer on the roads can only be a good thing. But don’t shy away from the test. After all, what is more important? A set of car keys, or a life?