Bicycler wrote:Ah, the attitude to elderly drivers no longer able to drive competently. No-one wants to deprive a pensioner of their transport do they? Incidents which should raise everyone's attention to the danger are turned a blind eye. Vision requirements are unenforced but then they aren't going very fast or very far and only in daylight so it's okay. This just seems the right thing to do until....
...someone gets hurt or killed and then the question is "why wasn't he stopped from driving?" I remember my granddad's driving in his later years from when I was a child. My mum insisted I walk home rather than accept a lift. If I get to the point where I don't trust my dad to drive he won't be driving unless a doctor tells me he is fit and I would notify the DVLA if I thought he might be inclined to do so. I don't want innocent people hurt and I don't want his final years scarred by the memory and guilt of causing a horrific incident.
As ever with driver licensing it is a privilege, not a right and it must be dependent upon meeting all the criteria to be able to safely operate the vehicle. A tonne of metal hurts as much when it hits you regardless of the age of the driver. We cannot have lower standards for the elderly.
Absolutely spot on!