Should drivers over 70 hand in their keys ?

[Junkyard-Dog]

Originally Posted by trublu

Usually it is a recommendation from your GP, police or local road authority through the usual checks that they have in place

If you really think a person should not be driving at all then it really comes down to reporting them to the authorities, I hate the idea of dobbing people in but then again if it means removing a person who is a potential road hazard then I think it is worthwhile for everyone's sake.

Well that's the thing. Amazingly the GP keeps giving my neighbour the go-ahead to keep driving. I simply wouldn't call the police, no doubt they would make it worse than it has to be.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Junkyard-Dog

Well that's the thing. Amazingly the GP keeps giving my neighbour the go-ahead to keep driving. I simply wouldn't call the police, no doubt they would make it worse than it has to be.

Catch22!

[cram_it_frog]

I have read this post interesting I am 62 and still driving ok but one thing I have not seen is the many people will still be working at 70 the Pension age is now 66 and going up every year , so how do they get to work ?

i know several people who are still working and full 5 day week at over 70 , one is a car sales man in Far west ford here in town , he is also the buyer and has worked in car sale s all his life.

The think is we are living longer and longer 70 is not that old over 80 you need a medical why not leave it many of you will be 70 before you know it lol

[Bolly47]

Originally Posted by Mercury Bullet

The one I know of, the police first took her licence. She kept on driving, they fined her she didn't pay. Stubborn old girl lol.

In the end it was somehow arranged that the government dispose of it for her. Forced sale basically. It was the only way she could be stopped.

She lived 20km out of town on her farm, alone. Family killed in WW2 - no siblings.

Pretty harsh when she wasn't at all dangerous...just s l o w .

Don't blame her for what she is doing because of her be a loner is very sad & cruel living on the farm with no sibling is not her fault like prison What she need someone to support or help, chat her like keep touch with other human being.

Other country dont need licence to drive a donkey along the road and keep riding whatever they go as long they live. no police hassle or no unnecessary revue raising

[castellan]

Originally Posted by cram_it_frog

I have read this post interesting I am 62 and still driving ok but one thing I have not seen is the many people will still be working at 70 the Pension age is now 66 and going up every year , so how do they get to work ?

i know several people who are still working and full 5 day week at over 70 , one is a car sales man in Far west ford here in town , he is also the buyer and has worked in car sale s all his life.

The think is we are living longer and longer 70 is not that old over 80 you need a medical why not leave it many of you will be 70 before you know it lol

70 truly is bloody old as the hills, not many people past 50 and on can do truly physical hard work and cracking the whip a 5 day week or are truly the top of there trade by then and are surly not as good as they were from before 45 on, if they have worked so all there life from 16 plus from what I have seen, let alone the cost to truly insure your self for the job nowadays would cost near what you could earn and at the age of 70 so there would be no way any tradesman could truly afford such a thing at all, no way could one survive to make a living at 70..

The Government is truly evil and off with the pixies with claiming 70 is the pension age, sure people like a car sales person pen pusher etc have never had to do physical hard work and are fine to do so at 70.
People should not be working past 65, doing the younger generation out of a job and all the problems with young people laying about idle is a total disgrace as all it's doing is creating more degenerates out of the younger generation.

The only reason people are living longer is modern medication, most people died at 64 to 66 is what I seen in my job, if they were lucky years ago and from 50 on they started falling off the perch.
From when I was 45 I started doing only 8 HR days and only 5 day week as I was Roo Ted when driving home from work and felt like I had gone a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson and then trying to getting walking in the morning, Oh the pain ! I do 7 HR now and I am looking at the time thinking f ing hell another hour to go ! and if it's too hot it's truly a bloody nightmare and I use to think people who only worked 8 HR day were just bludgers, as it was at least 10 or to 12HR days or more I did all the time.

One of the reasons why old people have a crash is they are doped up on a lot of medication, I have seen them drive off up the wrong side of the road from there home and if they do the shopping they are exhausted and drive off doing the stupidest things.

[98TLS]

Fwiw yesterday i spent the day on two wheels with my 75 year old father,at 75 hes riding a humble 1250 Bandit but manages to pilot the thing down the roads that matter very quickly,keeping up with him was a full time job,doubt i would bother mentioning that its time he handed in his license.

[blackf6]

My late Grandmother was driving a stick shift up until the age of 87. I know other people driving into their 80's. You know yourself when you can't drive anymore. Though it seems, you might not realise that your driving is dangerous and bothers others. (At any age)

[EBSXR6]

Originally Posted by trublu

Sorry mate misread your post....apologies!

I use to work for the railways where part of my job I had to attend many electric train accidents involving cars & pedestrians & to my experience it involved young & old people, very tragic once you learn how the events unfolded.

A family friend was a train examiner in Melbourne and part of his job was removing the bodies from the train.

Until he told me this I just thought his job was safety related. Explained when he worked the railways did everything including carrying out the investigation, they had their own Police etc.

[Junkyard-Dog]

Originally Posted by trublu

Catch22!

[Express]

Elderly motorists face tough test to keep their licence to drive



EXCLUSIVE,
LIA HARRIS, The Sunday Telegraph
11 December, 2016


ELDERLY drivers will be put under the microscope as a powerful NSW parliamentary committee considers an overhaul of the laws allowing them to keep their licenses.

A NSW Parliamentary Committee for road safety has announced an inquiry into protocols surrounding driver training for all ages, including the current system for ensuring elderly drivers are fit to stay on our roads.

The Staysafe Committee, which announced the driver education, training and road safety review in a bid to help reduce the state’s growing road toll, will also investigate the need for more refresher training for all ages to keep drivers up to date with current vehicle technology.

It comes as new crash figures from the Centre for Road Safety show the age group with the largest number of fatalities on the state’s roads in the past year were people aged over 70 years old, with 64 killed.

Victims aged between 60 and 69 also accounted for 39 deaths since November last year.

The figure represents a large portion of the 370 people killed on NSW roads this year, up from 326 at the same time last year.

Committee chair Greg Aplin MP said the system allowing elderly drivers to be assessed by their local GP to determine their competency would be among the laws reviewed.

“We don’t want this to just be a focus on elderly drivers, but we want to have a look at the whole system,” Mr Aplin said.

“We’re talking about people returning to driving or ageing drivers who still want that independence and are still passing a medical, but who has the responsibility of assessing their licence?

“The role currently sits with a doctor and that's usual your own GP and you can imagine the relationship there that could be jeopardised.

“I’m sure there’s a bit of subjectivity from the GP, but let’s look at other ways where you relieve the GP of that difficult decision.”

The review comes as a 69-year-old woman is due to appear in the District Court tomorrow charged with causing death by dangerous driving after hitting a 78-year-old woman at a pedestrian crossing in Richmond in December last year.

North Bondi resident Gisela Bernet, 83, said she used her car “every day” and “couldn’t imagine” being without it.

“The adjustment would be enormous. A little job which would normally take me half an hour would mean I take public transport and half the day is gone,” Ms Bernet said.

“(But) if I could not be sure I could handle it, I wouldn’t drive. I wouldn’t take that risk for myself and other drivers.”

Mr Aplin said the committee would also investigate the introduction of increased training to equip city drivers with the skills to navigate country roads to help reduce the number of fatal accidents in regional areas

The committee is calling for submissions from organisations and individuals for the inquiry until February 20.


See link for poll and comments.


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http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...aign=editorial

[Express]

I’ll quote Don from the comments section.

Stats can be used to give a desired result, but the mere fact nearly 70 elderly persons have been killed on our roads does nothing to indicate their ability to drive, or their knowledge of road road rules, nor their fitness to hold a drivers licence. If they are going to base their decisions on stats they should use only stats which show the following (1) how many drivers were at fault, (2) how many were passengers or pedestrians (3) how many died because of a medical condition, and not as a result of driver behaviour (4) how many died as a result of a mechanical failure, again nothing to do with road safety.(5) the driving history of drivers involved road crashes. Road fatalities just one factor in the road toll, injuries certainly cost the community more than do fatalities and this should also be taken into account before any decisions are made. Any decision taken shouldn't be based solely on the number of persons killed on our roads.

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[Franco Cozzo]

One of my customers is 89 years old, fought in the tail end if WWII and he still drives around, has an old 1993 Toyota Hilux he drives around locally to go to the TAB and put bets on horses.

He still has all his marbles.

[barrys123]

Age has not much to do with it, I think if they produce the figures showing age groups involved in accident you would be in for a shock.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

One of my customers is 89 years old, fought in the tail end if WWII and he still drives around, has an old 1993 Toyota Hilux he drives around locally to go to the TAB and put bets on horses.

He still has all his marbles.

Plenty of old drivers getting around that will put young drivers to shame, I remember in the 70's an old lady getting around in a Torana SLR5000, now that is something you don't really see every day.

[Focusfan]

Interesting story from Express there. BUT maybe they should also introduce drug testing for drivers under 30 as well due to the majority of the
police chases after high speed drivers and robbery chases involve this bracket of aged drivers and in most of them it ends in a major accident.
Some of the innocent victims they ram into are minding their own business and some of them end up deceased as well. Ice etc is more of a
threat on the roads than elderly drivers and i defy anyone to disagree.

[Express]

I’m a believer if one age group is targeted for mandatory re-testing then all ages should be treated the same way but in truth I feel there will always be good and bad drivers and accidents will continue to occur simply due to human error.

I live in a cul-de-sac and this morning I watched an 80 year old reverse an all-terrain caravan being towed by a Toyota Landcruiser 200 (like pictured below) for about 200 metres while negotiating a tight 90 degree bend half way along then a T-Intersection at the end.

The reason he did this is because the party held at the end of the street last night still had 5 vehicles with P-Plates illegally parked in the cul-de-sac preventing him from being able to turn his rig.

Even just a car would have needed to do a 3 point turn to get around in a cul-de-sac that you can usually turn around in without any trouble.

He’d driven down this street before to visit us without problems and this time didn’t know he couldn’t turn until he got almost to the end of the cud-de-sac.

He did a far better job of it than I ever could have.

I would have needed to reverse and go forward that many times it would have taken me half a day, he achieved it in one constant fluid maneuverer.

He and his wife are on the final leg back to their home in Melbourne after their yearly around Australia trek.








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[LG17]

"It comes as new crash figures from the Centre for Road Safety show the age group with the largest number of fatalities on the state’s roads in the past year were people aged over 70 years old, with 64 killed."

This appears to be the same method they use for speeding causing deaths - there's no indication if those 64 lost souls were responsible for the accident which killed them, just that they were killed. :(

[asagaai]

Originally Posted by LG17

"It comes as new crash figures from the Centre for Road Safety show the age group with the largest number of fatalities on the state’s roads in the past year were people aged over 70 years old, with 64 killed."

This appears to be the same method they use for speeding causing deaths - there's no indication if those 64 lost souls were responsible for the accident which killed them, just that they were killed. :(

Yes- stats are stats, only as good as the underlying assumptions/facts.

Obviously take 100 people aged 70 and over, compared to 100 people aged 20-30, involved in accidents of high speed of similar physics, the older people are more likely to suffer serious injury/death due to fragility/less muscle mass/osteoporosis/pre-existing pathology.

[Rallye Sport]

Like learners I'm happy to give the oldies some space and forgive any hic-ups.
Knowing the old girl over the road in her late 70's I realize how important her car is as a source of independence, if we're all not stuck in automated cars I hope to be driving stick in my olden days contraptions at that age...

[LG17]

Maybe they could buy one of those new fangled driverless cars - problem solved!

[mechanic]

Good question.
Another good question would be " should drivers who use their mobile phone while driving hand in their keys ? "
I'm nearly 70 and it amazes me how many people still talk on their phone while driving and most annoyingly they're usually sitting in front of me at the lights but are too brain dead to realize that GREEN means go.