Ask an elderly person not to ever drive.

[rgum]

Lets take on this issue here. Not in the other thread just started.


Ex girlfriend has an elderly father who I believe should not be driving. Too slow and uncoord. Shaking hands and often tired. Ageing is natural.
Cant turn the neck round enough to check behind when needed.
Sad I know but a fact.

Does a dissabled sign make it ok for them to keep on driving?
These signs make it easier for them to park. Not drive.

I can't budge on this one.

Cheers. :U

[ss_11000]

my grandma ( dads side ) gave up her licence and she's over 80, because she didnt feel safe driving and she didnt want to kill someone. she only live <1km away from woolies and other things so its alright, plus the 'village' has a bus that does the runs to the places.

[Sturdee]

I can't budge on this one.

Cheers. :U

If you believe strongly enough that he can not drive safely and is a danger to himself and other road users then you should write to Vicroads with your concerns. It can't be anonymous and you will need to give specific details.

They will then decide if he needs retesting to keep his licence.


Peter.

[johnc]

You can pass those concerns on to his doctor, who can advise the appropriate authority if they believe the licence should be revoked. My Grandfather stopped driving at 90 because his hearing was letting him down, my mother is driving still at 82 and is fine, although a little slow. Mum only drives around town and no longer does trips, however her reflexes and judgement are more than adequate.

A friend recently persuaded her mother to relinquish her licence and it was no easy task, it was done in conjunction with the quack and the final lever was asking them how they would feel if they ran down a small child. The final push coincided with the death of a child hit by an elderly man while the kid was crossing a major road. It not an easy task and handled badly may not acheive the best outcome.

[Chesand]

What the others have said
I was lucky. My father stopped driving after he was booked for the first time after a lifetime as a professional driver. He came home, put the car in the garage and handed in his licence. When the car was sold the money was put aside as 'taxi money'.
My father-in-law also decided when it was time to stop, handed me his licence to surrender and we then sold his car.

[wheelinround]

I am in the same boat with FIL I feel he is a danger on the road one of his Dr's has said he shouldn't be driving but hasn't done anything about it he is restricted to 15k's radius.

Over the years I have been in vehicles with many people all ages who I have felt shouldn't have a license. Many more old folk get run down by young people but we don't here of it as much.

One of my wifes friends is diabetic an accident waiting to happen as she doesn't take care of her health should I dob her in she regularly drivers her grandchildren around and is a teacher who drives near children.

"How would you feel if you killed someone" should be used on ALL drives all ages all abilities. A hoon who thinks they have control of a car can kill just as quick as an aged person.

Ask a person who has taken non perscribed drugs that or a bloke who's phissed or a Dr who has just done 36 hr straight and driving home.

What of the person at any age who has a medical emergency heart attack etc who can without knowing it kill others.

I suggest rgum you wrap yourself up in cotton wool and hide away in a room.

[Jim Carroll]

One of the problems you have with the elderly or anyone with a licence is that they think you are taking away their independance.

They like to be able to drive to the shop or to the bowls club on their own and not have to put anyone else out.

By taking their licence away can save lives as they are in most cases they are the cause of an accident, they may not be in it but their slow driving and slow reaction time cause other drivers to do things they would not normally do and get into trouble.

You mention their lack of movement but also look at the ones who wear hats in cars, usually wide brim so these limit the sight through the rear vision mirror. They dont see you coming so cannot get out of the way.

My dad is only in his mid 70,s but after a couple of parking scratches decided that maybe his sight and movement is not as good as it should be and sold his car, now uses the community buses and taxis, no more parking problems and gets dropped of and picked up at the front door.

[macca2]

I believe we should retest all license holders more often.
You can get a license at 17 and never be tested again until you are 80 or 85 depending where you live.
These days traffic conditions, road rules and vehicles change so dramaticly within a few years that a driver could easily become less than proficient.
It is not only age (mental and physical) but the amount and type of driving you do on a daily basis that has a bearing on your driving skills.
If you can't determine your ability to drive then someone else should.

Macca

[Barry_White]

By taking their licence away can save lives as they are in most cases they are the cause of an accident, they may not be in it but their slow driving and slow reaction time cause other drivers to do things they would not normally do and get into trouble.



Jim

Here in NSW it is a big contentious issue because the RTA is wanting to reduce the age of testing elderly drivers at the age of 75 and restricting them to 15 klms of home (that wouldn't be any good to me because at 15 klms I would be in the middle of nowhere as I have to travel 55 klms to town.) and interesting enough the statistics indicate that elderly drivers are less likely to be involved in and accident than all other groups.

As far as causing the accident I would question the skills of the driver that gets into an accident and blames the slow reaction of the elderly driver.

I have been driving professionally on and off for 45years both driving Taxi's in Sydney 110,000 klms a year, Trucks from Tamworth to Sydney and doing 60,000 klms a year for the last 25 years as a sales rep and consider myself a fairly competent driver and when I think my driving is not up to scratch I will hand my license in. In all that time I've had two accidents both my fault taking a calculated risk when I was much younger (Hitting kangaroos doesn't count because when driving in the bush that is a risk that you have very little control over. Probably about 20 over the years)

I have no issues with being tested at 85 but at 75 I think is a bit young.

I have to have a medical every year because of type 2 diabetes which is treated with a tablet as well as being a recipient of a quadruple bypass in the last 2 years .

As far as having a heart attack as someone said that is not restricted to the domain of just the elderly as in the last week I know of two people in their 40's who have dropped dead from a heart attack who were supposedly healthy. Fortunately they weren't driving at the time.

I do agree there are a lot of drivers should not be on the road and it's not just elderly or disabled drivers.

I think good drivers know when their skills have diminished but bad drivers don't even know that they are bad drivers and that goes across all age ranges.

[DavidG]

Some times the elderly are not good drivers and cause a problem.
Lots of time young hoons cause problems.

I would much rather be on the road with the elderly (slow) drivers than a mob of young hoons looking for some fun.

Problem with this world is the number of people who think they have the rights to run other peoples lives.:~

Fitness to drive (http://www.austroads.com.au/aftd/index.html)

[silentC]

Yeah but the hoons are only there briefly as they fly past at 120km on a blind corner, so assuming you survive the encounter, it only affects you for a few seconds. It's when you get stuck behind the 75kph hat driver that the experience lingers beyond my patience level :)

[Christopha]

The problem with my father is that as he ages and his abilities fade he thinks is still the best driver on the road. ALL truck drivers are dangerous idiots and EVERYONE but Dad drives much faster than is necessary! He has a nasty way of dealing with truckies who overtake him. He will do up to 160kph to repass them and then jumps on the brakes to show them they should slow down!!!!
To suggest to him that perhaps he needs think about curbing his driving gets him extremely angry and he always goes off and does a biiiig drive towing his caravan behind his Subaru Forester.... like from SA to Queensland in 3 days, Perth in 3 days. He then usually turns round immediately and comes home!

[AlexS]

I believe we should retest all license holders more often.
You can get a license at 17 and never be tested again until you are 80 or 85 depending where you live.
These days traffic conditions, road rules and vehicles change so dramaticly within a few years that a driver could easily become less than proficient.
It is not only age (mental and physical) but the amount and type of driving you do on a daily basis that has a bearing on your driving skills.
If you can't determine your ability to drive then someone else should.

Macca
Absolutely.
When I was driving every day, I reckoned I could pick the drivers who only ever drove on weekends.
Now I only drive once or twice a week, and I reckon I can notice my skills have decreased. Also, I'm sure some laws have changed that I'm not aware of.

I reckon that licence tests should be a lot longer than the drive round the block that it is. A short drive like that doesn't test the concentration.

[Groggy]

Tests? Why restrict it to elderly people - the same rules apply to everyone do they not?

The best way to identify bad drivers is to record their activity. Put their licence into a reader/writer unit in the car. If they do something that annoys enough people they get 'zapped' anonymously by other motorists.

Zapper would be a handheld scanner or ping type gun.
it can only fire up to ten times a day
it can only hit the same vehicle once per dayReceiver would activate a warning buzzer and external light at 50, an alarm at 100 and disable the vehicle at 150 (or by a police 'zapper')

Repeated activations would be readable off the licence by authorities and each licence would have to be read once per year to be re-activated.

Yeah, I know, but it is as workable as anyone else's ideas :rolleyes:

[TEEJAY]

The problem with my father is that as he ages and his abilities fade he thinks is still the best driver on the road. ALL truck drivers are dangerous idiots and EVERYONE but Dad drives much faster than is necessary! He has a nasty way of dealing with truckies who overtake him. He will do up to 160kph to repass them and then jumps on the brakes to show them they should slow down!!!!
To suggest to him that perhaps he needs think about curbing his driving gets him extremely angry and he always goes off and does a biiiig drive towing his caravan behind his Subaru Forester.... like from SA to Queensland in 3 days, Perth in 3 days. He then usually turns round immediately and comes home!


Now this one does sound scarey :o

Might find a truck driver with slow reactions one day.

[Groggy]

Now this one does sound scarey :o

Might find a truck driver with slow reactions one day.I used to car pool with a guy who took it as his personal responsibility to slow the world down. 70kph in westbound traffic on the Westgate bridge, 90kph in the 100 zone - always in the right lane and would not move, in peak hour.

I lasted three trips.

[RETIRED]

I used to car pool with a guy who took it as his personal responsibility to slow the world down. 70kph in westbound traffic on the Westgate bridge, 90kph in the 100 zone - always in the right lane and would not move, in peak hour.

I lasted three trips.I have followed that bloke frequently.:rolleyes:

[Barry_White]

Absolutely.

I reckon that licence tests should be a lot longer than the drive round the block that it is. A short drive like that doesn't test the concentration.

Alex

The test lasts at least 20 minutes and they try to cover as many situations as possible. My wife who has been driving for a few years but hasn't got her license yet and is a reasonable driver has been failed 3 times mostly on signaling. I think if they made the test any longer you would be waiting 12 months to get an appointment. She has had a couple of lessons from a professional driving instructor.

From a few people I know they have now made the test much harder and more people are failing especially on their first attempt. The fact they have to do 120 hours of learner driving now should make them a bit more proficient.

I have a few relatives both men and women that have been driving for years and will drive around the block a half dozen times until they can find a parking spot they can drive into because they can't reverse park.

One of the ridiculous things with the RTA when they are testing you, you aren't allowed to use your mirrors when you reverse park but you have to screw your neck about to see where you are going. The thing is when you get your license you are allowed to drive a small truck and if it has an enclosed body on it there is no way that you can reverse park without using your mirrors yet learner drivers are not taught how to drive in reverse using their mirrors.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[astrid]

my in laws are in their 80's and being ex country folk are used to driving long distances,
however a few years ago my father in law told us that mother in law fell asleep at the wheel on the great ocean road and he still drives 5hr trips on a regular basis at the max speed allowed in all weather and in the dark.
They want to take my kids with them and i said no.
this caused a major rucus, me being the un controlled woman as usual.
how do you tell people like this that even if they think they are safe they only have their own, or an innocent strangers, life to loose.
however If we test older peolpe and cancell there licences who takes them shopping", this country is too big to provide public transport everywhere.
local councils would have to increase rates to provide this service, but I am willing to fund it (it would free up parking near the local bridge club and shopping centre for one)

astrid
mayme we should have a poll on this.
Should drivers over 70 have regular tests?

[rgum]

Testing is good. For all drivers. I'll do it. I've just turned 43.

I'm one of those drivers who is slow. I'm in the left lane doing 9o in 1oo spot and so on. :B :C
Never had a Bracks, Kirner, Brumby action driving photo. Never , ever will contribute to the revenue state ecconomy.
Never a fine.

How's my spelling? ha he. :q

Oh and also....Spelling. Licence. Grab your wallet girls and boys.

Please put your spell check on " The rest of the world English" in options. Not American. Sincerely no offence to any.

Just looked up the difference in country, Re: spelling. Canada, England and Yanks have 6 variations between them. Gawwwd. Please. Stick with what we learnt when we were younger. Sincerely no offence.

Yep. I'm going to chat to my elderly friend in Geelong. Not good.
Don't feel good either.

:2tsup: Toe Knee.

[wheelinround]

mine was on every time I spelt it LICENCE it makes it wrong just like has the word spelt not spelled b$%% American speller things and I choose UK every time.

no offence

I have always said that testing should be done every few 2 to 5 yrs

Astrid is correct about transport services bus companies and council services don't provide what hey used to its the governments that cut it back and manage what they can do.:doh:

Families hate having to be there to take over it breaks into their lives.


during my training to drive coaches I was taught that a good driver never spills a drop to which the fellow teaching filled a bowl of water and sat it on the dash I had to drive and only in extreme situations would it be acceptable to have it all over the floor

[Poppa]

I'm going to be even more contentious here and suggest that there are many people driving on our roads that do not have adequate skills to be driving - regardless of their age. If a person is not fit enough or coordinated enough to undertake mild physical exercise, like throwing and catching a ball one-handed, how are they physically qualified to drive? Driving requires quite sophisticated hand-eye coordination to do it well, and it also requires the ability to concentrate for the entire time behind the wheel. There are a lot of people in our society that do not have both of those skills, and quite a few that do not have either. Yet we allow them to drive, provided they can pass a very simple test. They then go out and 'accidentally' kill someone when they have an accident. Hmmmm....

I believe that we treat having a driving licence as a 'right' in this country, when it should be a 'privilege'. I firmly believe that about 30% of those currently with licences should not be allowed to drive, because they do not have the requisite physical or mental skills to drive safely.

When I did my motorcycle training, the 'L' licence training was a two day course that you had to pass before I could get an 'L' plate and ride on the roads. Then I had to do an 8 hour 'P' plate course, and pass a quite difficult test to move to a 'P' licence (3 of the 6 people on the course I did failed, all of them more experienced riders than I - but not safer riders!). This type of rider training for motorcycles has reduced the fatality rate for new riders dramatically wherever it has been introduced.

Instead of talking about reduced speed limits, and more draconian measures for new drivers, why not train them better and reduce the number that are allowed to drive on the road to those that can actually drive well? I realise that there would be a cost associated with this, but would this cost be higher than that we pay in lives each year? When will the authorities realise that the solution is staring them in the face? In the short term it will be expensive and unpopular, but it will save an enormous quantity of lives, and will lead to safer driving conditions for all (and with more people not allowed to drive we should also have a very good reason to improve the woeful public transport systems we currently put up with).

My $0.02 worth....

[Master Splinter]

I think that there should be more skills tested than just driving skills - there should be some sort of "here's the tools, here's the oil, here's the filter - now change the oil" type testing.

If you don't have a reasonable idea of how it works and how to fix it, you don't get to use it.

[astrid]

hey MS,
Is this a sneaky way to get us ladies off the road?
Oh my hands and nails!!

Astrid:U