On a driving lesson a few years back, we drove past Wheelock Farm. It was a lovely sunny day in the summer and with the nice weather and high temperatures, families had taken their kids to the farm to have a play on the park and take a look at the animals… the car park was absolutely packed!
Wheelock is a big place, and there would have been ample
parking to cope with the rush, had there not been two air ambulances also
parked on the field – very unusual to see two of them together!
A tragedy had happened that day! A family had visited the farm
and was having a picnic at the back of their car when a driver reversing out of
a nearby space lost control of their vehicle and reversed over an adult and a
child who was sat in the wrong place at the wrong time
That driver was in his 90’s according to later news reports
This wasn’t too long after the late Prince Philip had been
involved in an “at fault” crash in Norfolk. He’d pulled out of the Royal estate
into the path of an approaching vehicle that hit him with such force that it
rolled his Range Rover onto it’s roof – so it must have been close enough to be
in full view when he left the junction
Whenever things like this happen, the social media sites go
wild with loads of younger people saying how everyone should be asked to retake
their tests after 70 or maybe even how your licence should automatically be
taken from you at that age, never to drive again
These statements are easy to make… unless you’re the 70yr
old involved!
Imagine waking up on your 70th birthday and
having to go for a driving test that, if failed, meant that you couldn’t use
your car again. Today’s driving test is very different to the one that these
people would have taken 50yrs ago, so they’d require lessons… imagine
restarting driving lessons at that age after 5 decades of safe driving!
But here’s the painful bit, if you passed your driving test
in 2006, 20yrs ago, today’s test is also very different to the one you took, so
you’d probably require driving lessons too if you were mandated to retake it
for some reason and you’ve probably go 2 decades of accident free driving under
your belt – would you be up for that if it became law that everyone took at
test every 10yrs or so? Would you support the introduction of that law, knowing
that if you made a mistake and failed it, it’d mean that you lose your transport
to and from work and maybe even lose the income source completely?
A bit of empathy goes a long way when you’re trying to work
out a policy for these types of things – with age related stuff, it’ll
definitely be you one day!
Dementia can start to take effect in people who are in their
40’s and in it’s initial stages, it’d usually be almost impossible for you to
notice yourself that there’s a problem. It usually comes on gradually, so you
can initially get used to and adapt to the early symptoms and just see it as
part of every day life
Many elderly people with dementia are doing the same thing
and adopting habits like writing things down so that they don’t forget to get
by. You don’t see the number of times that they walk into a room and have forgotten
what they wanted to do in that room and you don’t see the terror they feel when
the wind outside makes the fence panels bang together. They don’t know that
they’ve got dementia, and they’re continuing to drive because they don’t know
there’s something wrong
The current situation is that your licence expires on your
70th birthday but it can be extended by 5yr intervals if you make a
request to do so and make a declaration that your health hasn’t changed
So straight away, we see the problems:
·
Firstly, somebody who doesn’t know they’re ill,
and who relies on their car for independence and social interaction, is being
asked to self-certify that they’re well enough to drive
·
Secondly, the mental deterioration that causes
many of the road safety problems can begin a long time before the driver
considers themselves to be entering old age
·
Thirdly, there are loads of people who are in
their advanced years who can drive safely and competently every day without
issue
A few years back, I wrote to Fiona Bruce, Conservative MP
for Congleton at the time, about an idea I’d had to address these issues. Although
she replied and apparently mentioned it at meetings, it didn’t really go anywhere
My idea is that we need a way of showing these people that their
skills are deteriorating and a way of encouraging them to consider hanging up
their key’s voluntarily
People over 40yrs of age in the UK are invited to have blood
tests that screen for various health problems such as heart attacks, strokes
and diabetes. We’re invited for these tests every 5yrs
If we made these tests mandatory for drivers, and if we included
mandatory eyesight checks and reaction tests, I think we’d identify a lot of
the risk factors in their early stages
Obviously the opticians would be able to correct the
majority of the eyesight problems with prescription glasses but it’s the
reaction tests that I’d be most interested in…
Because in their 40’s, most drivers would pass these
reaction tests easily, but if we do it right, and maybe give each performance a
score, then as people age, they’d be able to see the scores going more and more
towards the threshold for failure (and subsequently, their revocation of their
licence). I think many would voluntarily drop out of the game, make appropriate
arrangements with their families for the necessary support and surrender their
licence when they reached a point where they really thought there was a
possibility of them failing it
The beauty of this idea is that it’s not age bound and it’s
progressive, meaning that it should show a gradual reduction in skill level
giving the driver time to make accommodations for not having a licence, rather
than the sudden death characteristic of failing a driving test
Whatever we do, we should remember at all times that these
people are people and that they deserve to be treated with the same respect for
their situations that we’d all like to be treated with. Nobody goes out in
their car with the intention of crashing and very few will every deliberately
drive dangerously… in the two cases I mentioned at the start of this essay,
those two drivers were probably aware of their age, aware of some slowing down,
but not aware of the extent to which that slow down was affecting them and a
crash is a very harsh way to come to that realisation
Nick Heath Driver Training helps people of all
levels and abilities with their driving. Established in 2005 and based on the
South Cheshire / North Staffordshire border in the UK, I can help you to obtain
a licence, become a driving instructor, regain your driving confidence or
reduce your road risk for work purposes. I am a regular contributor to local
and national radio when driving items come up in the news and am willing to
contribute to the wider driver training conversation
Anyone wanting more information should call 0800 8
20 2038
