Whenever I see ‘experts‘ being reported in the news, my head sinks into my hands.
Drivers over 70 should have compulsory eyesight tests with some being unable to read a number plate from just three metres away, a former police officer and road safety expert has said.
Rob Heard, a road safety consultant and the founder of the Older Drivers Forum, said that around 10 per cent of drivers have deficient eyesight, with sight loss significantly worsening after the age of 70.
65 per cent of Brits are in favour of mandatory driving re-tests for over-70s, according to YouGov polling estimates.
The eyesight check for a driving test is rudimentary, to say the least. However we do it at CBT because we need to know that students can meet that basic requirement. It isn’t the older folk who fail it, either. It’s usually the sixteen year olds. The last one could barely read a number plate at half the required distance and had no idea that his sight was defective. Older people on the other hand are well aware of deteriorating sight and tend to visit an optician as a matter of course. I have always had my eyes checked every two years because I hold a licence. Yes, sure, some drivers don’t, but it isn’t a rule that applies to everyone. We all deteriorate at differing rates. The general approach of being aware is fine, but singling out one group as if they are a major cause of accidents isn’t the right approach here.
So, the expert might want to reconsider his advice – everyone who holds a driving licence should, as a matter of course, get checked regularly, not just people above some mandatory age.
Drivers over 70 are much more likely to be killed in a collision than younger drivers, Department for Transport data shows.
Oh my, where to start with such bollocks. No context means nothing. It does not mean that they caused the accidents, nor does it mean that they did so due to poor eyesight. Data without context is just random noise. It’s meaningless.
As for what the cretins at YouGov think – fuck ’em.
Always a difficult one as the loss of mobility, especially for those in rural areas, could easily be a disaster.
In truth, l have encountered elderly drivers whose reactions leave something to be desired and can struggle in heavy traffic but I’m not convinced this is something solely confined to older drivers, also there seems to be many more young drivers that are a liability.
Wonder if there is a way of checking someone’s fitness to drive periodically regardless of age.
That’s pretty much my point. Singling out people above an arbitrary age is illogical. From my own experience, younger people can be unfit and are less likely to be getting checked up.
I’m 66. I have my eyes tested every two years and also, being a diabetic, I have a retinal screening done annually. I’ve been driving since I was seventeen and the only mishaps that I have had have been rear end collisions caused by other drivers. After the first one I became much more aware of what was happening behind me and have avoided a fair few incidents by carefully slowing down and allowing the driver following more time to react.
To expose the nonsense of older drivers being more dangerous, just check out the relative insurance premiums compared to youngsters, the difference can be a factor of 10 or more.
Insurance underwriters know a lot about real risk, if older drivers were actually so hazardous, they’d be hammered by such high premiums too.
Next they’ll be saying the over-70s can only drive electric cars, not petrol ones – I wouldn’t put it past them, so remember where you read it first.
I have been driving now for 66 years and have driven almost every type of wheeled vehicle at one time.Here in New Zealand, being over 70 means getting checked over by a doctor and most GPs are happy to do it as they get paid about 50 dollars ( about 25 pounds). The test covers general health and mental acuity as well as an eye check.
If the doctor told me that I was no longer fit to drive I could accept that although it would be a serious blow to my activities,but an arbitrary age limit dictated by some dictatorial do gooder is totally unacceptable.
’The last one could barely read a number plate at half the required distance and had no idea that his sight was defective.’
How can you not know?!?
So a sixteen year old youth was suffering from bad eyesight. Wonder what caused that? Maybe the old rumour is true?
More like constantly glued to his phone or games console, so never using his long distance vision.
We wondered that.
From recent experience, I would suggest that young male drivers of African origin are the biggest danger on roads today. In the past year and a half, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve nearly had one hit my car, either through ignoring a roundabout or a red light, or pulling out of a side street without looking. And of course, back in October ’23, the inevitable happened and one of these arseholes swerved onto my side of the road and wrote off my car. I was left with a fractured knee, due it hitting the side of the centre console, and two cracked ribs from the seat belt. The lying little shite even tried to blame me for it, even though I was on the correct side of the road and driving at 30, and then tried to claim that he was only doing 20mph. I highly recommend dashcams, because mine showed what actually happened. The dumb shit wasn’t watching the road. The damage to both cars was a factor in that too, his was also written off. I was actually surprised to find that he had a valid licence and insurance. I had to get a lawyer involved, because his insurance, Admiral, tried to argue to the toss, but I now have a brand new, petrol driven, MG HS.
Having an eye test is one thing, getting people to surrender their licences is something else altogether. An elderly neighbour of mine with macular degeneration kept driving for some time after he should have stopped because he only drove around the block to get his morning paper – a route he’d done so often he literally could do it blindfolded. It was only when he had to take the car to have its MoT one year that he realised he shouldn’t be on the road any longer. Blind luck* he didn’t do any harm in the mean time.
* Deliberate
When I hear the word “expert” the image that flashes into my mind is Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker from the Muppet Show.
Nowadays, those two make more sense than the self anointed and appointed “experts” paid to validate the politicians decisions.