Safe Speed Forums

First we had BRAKE with it's knee jerk campaign Now we've got another knee jerker, this time on the topic of older drivers, on the basis of one accident caused by an older driver. Older drivers over a certain age should be tested .Personally ,as an older driver with over 30 years accident free record( though the insurance industry only gives me 9), nil points and over 30 years accident free record, I see this as an insult, as daily I have to take action to prevent accidents by drivers said by this knee jerk group as "SAFE" - i.e. under 40. I see the same result regularly in supermarkets, where there is no advanced cognition of problems. Then there's the "eyesight test", where the standard is to read a numberplate at a set distance. GREAT- but how come, that I as someone on the extremes of the eyesight test, can spot a car in a problem location, driven by someone 40 years younger ? i'd suggest it's not about eyesight ,but about brain eyesight training- something Paul referred to as lizard brain .
my "Lizard brain" has been conditioned for coming up to 50 years. I learned to drive (with what to day would be classed as an IAM Instructor), who taught me both to pass the test, but to drive. I've driven on most types of road, but my experience of single track roads still stays with me, and I'm amazed by the ignorance on the protocols of this.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

If we're thinking about the same incident, it was indeed a tragic case - loss of spouse - in which an elderly driver pressed the wrong pedal. However, this type of incident is exceedingly rare, and as far as I'm concerned it provides no basis for automatically retesting all drivers when they reach the age of 70.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

Likewise. Brake functions on the evidence of one incident,and it seems that every time there's something similar ,there a knee jerk reaction to legalise/test/ legislate .There's several cases of professional footballers causing problems, let's test them every few years, in case their reactions are faulty- -but if their reactions are dodgy, how come they are still at the top of their game. Then again, we see the insurance industry favouring the older driver over those in mid 20's. Perhaps, we need MOT style testing of drivers in their formative years. My daughter with over ten years NCB, still gets a hefty discount for adding me as named driver on her policy. Perhaps the insurance industry knows something that this lot of amateurs don't .(i was thinking of calling them armatures, as their opinion revolves so often)
Next we hear mention of tests of driving capabilities. like a lot of folks who've adapted to driving vans& commercial vehicles, I've learnt to park/reverse etc on mirrors, but from what I hear, the only approved DVLA test method is looking over shoulder. Then there's the ancient DVLA hands on wheel /gripping the wheel argument, proved by many professionals( including Police class 1) as not the best method of car control . Most of us older drivers, use a mixture, depending on the situation, which we've learnt to adapt to (possibly over more years of driving than the DVLA tester has years), but then the tester is the so called expert.
The basic problem with the knee jerk road "safety" experts is that each one has an axe to grind, but no overall strategy to make the UK roads safer.

_________________
lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on