saw this posted this on vtr site.... http://www.gazette-n...ce_chase_ever_/ wtf!!! this justifies my reasoning that when a person's driving licence expires at age 70 they should have to retake their test & medical etc... & not just be reissued a new one. if i was the plod i wouldve shot out the tyres & tazed the daft old bat :lol:
Oh, dont get me started on this one!!! A relation (not close,) has just gone into a care home at 72 with alzheimers. Her licence was automaticaly renewed at 70 and her car was only confiscated a few months ago although she had been showing symptoms for a long time before that. We now realise that it was pure good luck or vigilant other drivers that was the only reason she got home safely after every car journey. I went in with her one day and talk about a white knuckle ride!!! she just aimed her car down the middle of the road and didnt stop or give way for anything. Not junctions or roundabouts. No indication and when i mentioned her indicators she said her car hasnt got any.(it was a 6 month old peogot.) when i told her where they were she said she's never used them. She would phone people and ask how to make it go cos she couldnt make it work. She had forgotten about using keys and where they go. She had been taken to the doctors for memory health checks and was even diagnosed, (just waiting to see a specialist,) but no one asked about her licence so was still free to get in her car and go, (when she rememberd how it worked!!) How she never caused a serious accident was unbelievable. A few years before this i was at woolston tip. One of the workers was leaning in the drivers window of a mates car chatting. An old lady in a Micra was trying to drive off a gravel patch. Her car was wheel spinning so she put her foot fully to the floor. She got off the gravel but as soon as she touched the concrete she shot forward at full speed and smashed into the side of the car and the man chatting to his mate pinning him there. She was in such shock that she kept her foot fully to the floor keeping hinm pinned there untill someone ran over and stop Retests after 70 should be compulsary, Im only -- and i dont concentrate now when im driving, God knows what i'll be like at 70. :shades:
I'd go one further. A driving license is a privilege, not a right. As a financial adviser we discuss people's attitudes to financial risk, but have to recognise that these need checking on an annual basis as a lot of things change during a year, including people's physical and mental health. On that basis I honestly believe that EVERYONE should have to retake their driving test every 5 years. I know most of us wouldn't pass right away and would probably need some refresher lessons to get us back up to spec, but surely that PROVES that people's skills need polishing on a regular basis? 5 year retests would take a lot of unfit drivers off the road and would put paid to those muppets who have to take their test 15 times and eventually pass only through a combination of luck and pity on the examiners part - these are the people who then proceed to turn right from the left lane as you're overtaking on the bike and then as you lie dying in the road tell everyone that you cut her up and clipped her car. And she has whiplash....
Spot on there jim. I think there should be some sort of 3 fails and you have to wait a year before trying again.
i took a lift off mrs's dad one time (and only one time lol) in his 2L hyundai pos. he's 82 now. i commented that i hadnt seen him use his mirrors once .and his reply was that it confuses him so he doesnt use them. "one minute im looking forward, then next im looking behind me!" i said ey thats the last time you're taking my kids in the car. caused a major row but i dont give a fk. you get a free bus / rail pass at 65 so no need to drive beyond 70. get them off the fkin roads. yes and i know some will say they are nearly 70 and they can drive ok.... fine. retake your test and prove it.
i kind of agree with you there jim but the main problem with retests is the dvla and the goverment are a set a robbing bastards and i doubt it would be free and going back to the main article wtf 20 odd miles before she stopped how fooking stupid has this counrty gone when the police cant stop her before then ? they must be able to do a t pack or something equally as fun to watch on traffic cops i really dont get this counrty at times
Or just move to Africa coz no one has a real driving licence and your car is only ever MOT'd once when you first take ownership.
There isnt the infrastructure to introduce anything like this. Imagine how many test centres you would need to have everyone retaking a test every 5 years. You would also have the problem of people that drive for a living. You would need some sort of grace period for these or people wouyld be losing their jobs / unable to work till they passed again. The current test is also a worryingly low standard to pass. So the standard that new drivers start at is hardly "good". Safe, maybe, but to say a newly passed driver is a good driver would be stretching the truth, saying most are safe would be arguable as well. In modern times it is stupid that you have zero motorway experience when you have passed your test. How many people these days dont use a motorway fairly regularly, yet the vast majority are self taught. The problem you have is to enforce anything stronger will cost money, and at the moment, we dont have money.
imo the car test should be along similar lines as the bike test with cbt, theory & part 1 before you even go near a road. how many times have you seen a learner who's obviously on their first lesson... the instructor grabbing the wheel as they bounce off the kerb then go kangarooing off towards the next obstacle. all new road users should have to pass another module to ride / drive on motorways... how many L drivers / riders have driven in the dark, in heavy rain, fog, snow etc... or even with a carfull of pissed up passengers with cd blaring? and in cities... all very different to what you get on a lesson and test. newly passed drivers should have to undergo a 12mth probation before being able to take back seat passengers / carry children etc - or carry luggage on the car, ie fkin pushbikes strapped to the boot lid. (my pet hate)
My old neighbour was told not to drive and to hand in his license by his doctor due to a cateracs and senile dementia, he didn't. How is that a system that works. He then proceeded to roll his car on the M6 luckily it was the embankment no other vehicles involved, the police took his license off him, but he still insisted that he would get another car. Lucily his son saw sense and stopped him. He was so bad that he would get his car out of the garage drive to the end of the road (cul de sac) turn round and drive straight back into the garage, while his wife waited for him to pick her up. :S
