Having a nice shiny BMW wiped out from underneath him by someone who was not safe to be on the road and then spending weeks in hospital pretty almost ruined his life... I am not suggesting a "one strike and you're out" type policy - more that where someone would obviously benefit from retraining they are made to take it. But I can't believe that many of us have never come across someone who we can clearly see shouldn't still be driving? "Ruining their life" by preventing them from doing something potentially fatal must surely be better than ruining several lives, their own and other people's, by letting them carry on until they actually have an accident?
If you ever have an accident in it I'd be very curious to see what the insurance company view would be... In fact I'd be curious to know what their view of you disabling safety features is even before you have an accident... I suspect it would at least be along the "contributory negligence" line... Just my opinion, obviously... Same principle as not wearing a seatbelt...
Last year I had to sit down with my farther and tell him to park his car up and never use it again, he only used it to go shopping with no long journeys involved but he wasn't safe, he was 88 at the time and had only one accident in his life. After we had the conversation he told me he was quite relieved i had take the action as he was not happy driving and only did it because my mum needed to go to the shops. Steve
Seeing as how there are options to turn off the ESC and put the car into 'Sport' mode and also turn off swivelly headlights; auto rain sensor; hill start assist; engine stop/start etc etc, I'm sure the Insurance Company or you can take it up with Volvo......
I fully understand where you are coming from. I have seen many such people, but I have hardly ever seen an accident as a result. It isn't about balancing one persons right to not be put in hospital and another persons right to drive in a less than perfect way, it is about the total volume of harm on either side of the argument. Many peoples lives could be ruined by retesting with the possibility of failure against the few people who are seriously injured as a consequence. The demographics of life in the UK means that the problem of elderly drivers (and bike riders) will not go away and something can and should be done about it but compulsory retesting with the possibility of failure should not form part of the solution.
Another awful tragedy on our roads, sympathies to family & friends of the deceased. We may learn more after the findings of the accident investigation are published. As part of the process, I suspect the blood alcohol level of both drivers will be of interest when assessing the potential factors that could have contributed to the incident - especially considering it happened at 02:00 this morning.
it is not Driving Tests that need retaking, driving is pretty well common sense, it is Eye Sights that needs testing, personally from the age of 50 onwards, I do not need glasses, but I wear glasses to drive most of the time, not because I need them (I would easily pass the test requirements) but to improve my eye sight for sharper longer distance, but I do know my eye sight is not as good as it used to be. Another issue for me getting older is Dark Areas, the roads I drove along and around seem to be far too often completely over grown making it like you are constantly driving in and out of tunnels and in bright light to dark is far harder at age to re focus. With more cyclists on the road also you just do not see them sometimes in a dark tunnel of forest arched over the road that never gets cut back, The Councils should cut all verges back to give better vision around corners and cut all over hanging tress, and branches it would reduce the road deaths and accidents, just for the fact of trees and large branches falling in the road and onto vehicles. Not that will ever happen, When Driving abroad even in forests the roads are keep cut back and it is rare you have over hanging areas of for hundreds of yards like we do here
I think motorway driving should be test based There are a lot of people who need lessons on a motorway and going up the wrong way should alert society that it's required Old people should be allowed to drive but once a year have a qualified person check out their driving like a mock test Yes young lads die for different driving reasons perhaps fast car games are to blame Should they be limited to 998cc or not allowed on the road till they are 40 Anyone who has an accident should have driving lessons and then retested What is the answer as everyone will cry human rights freedom of speech etc etc
In my opinion anyone who RUNS into a other should be done for due care as they are the ones at fault and not paying attention
Stats are so easily mis-represtented, if you actually added all the accidents up per mile driven verses age groups, those stats would show a very different result. Because of the speed older people drive there are a percentage of accidents that never get reported, because they do not involve other cars or people. Not to mention a few accidents they cause but are they are not involved in
@johnv I think a check up would be a more appropriate term for what people are saying. Not a test with a pass mark but a drive around with someone who will assess their driving and mental state (have they forgotten important signs and stud colours). If they are bad enough, they don't 'fail' as such, but are sat down with family and the matter is discussed. Saying all that though, the news hasn't said which driver was driving the wrong way. You watch, it'll be the 27 year old can passengers vehicle [emoji51]
When drivers get very elderly they tend to drive only short distances, only on roads they know, only slowly, and never at night or in bad weather. In which case calling a taxi to take them wherever they want to go would work out cheaper over the course of a year than running their own car, as well as less hassle. Q.E.D.
Mother in law is 60 and won't do long journeys or drive after the sun disappears. Her sense of direction is awful and I've seen her stop and dither at junctions. She stopped and turned around on a m'way slip road entrance once as she realised she'd come off the roundabout at the wrong exit. Now, if she lacks the confidence in her own abilities then why should we implicitly trust her abilities as she deteriorates with age. Just because she passed a test once, many years ago, does not mean she's still at the required standard. As has been said, having an oncoming at night when you have a set of oncoming headlights to look at is shocking. No excuse!
definitely got that right - I remember working that out long time ago as a certain type of driver would always say the tyres were to blame plus all thought they were Stirling Moss as soon as a nippy fwd car became available cheap. Put 'em in a Lotus Sunbeam and they were soon in the ditch.
I think you will find (and I'm willing to be proved wrong here) that your insurance premium is based, at least in part, on the insurance company's not unreasonable assumption that all the safety devices fitted to the car will be active. I'm guessing from your reply that you haven't informed them that you routinely drive around with them all deactivated. Try telling them, and see how much your premium rises... Or - don't tell them and see what happens if you ever have an accident.
I got wiped out by a 82 year old on my paniagle in June. Bloke hardly knew what day it was according to the police and has since stopped driving. There should be a automatic re-test at 70 , 75 , 80 etc. If they can drive properly then passing a test is easy. If they fail the test then it's probably saved someone injury.
I took my mums license from her 5 years ago, she had signs of dementia and after losing her car a few times in our local town that was enough. She hated the family for it but for me there was no other option. If she couldn't remember where she parked the car she wouldn't remember the way home or the roads she'd taken for the last 20 years. How many old people still drive with dementia ? If you met my mum who's now 82 you'd never think she had dementia, they learn to reply with standard answers that sound very convincing.
My wife was driven onto a roundabout by a pensioner who wouldn't give her room (she was turning right and he was going straight on - too literally). He refused to stop and the Police were called, 5 cars went out to find him, which obviously they did as they had his reg no and he was going home. He didn't even know he'd hit her and couldn't answer why there was silver paint matching my wife's car on his blue car. So they let him off, in my opinion hit and run should be automatic prosecution. He didn't tell his insurance company so it took us over a year to finalise the claim which only succeeded then because he died. On-one needs people like that on the road. Some people here seem to be forgetting that a licence is a privilege not a right. If you can't raise your game to test standard you shouldn't have a licence. As in my previous post I don't see it as an age thing and I'd be happy to re-take my car and bike tests every ten years. I think you should have to pass them in the 6 months before your licence expires, that way it's up to you if you risk a lapse if you're not good enough at the last minute or do it a little early to have a chance to retake in case you make a stupid mistake on the day (people do get nervous). As test centres would struggle I stand by my previous statement that everyone should do theory, hazard perception and eye test every ten years as that would be simple. It'll never happen though as it'll be a vote loser and for most safety is all about other people making your life safer rather than taking responsibility.
If the functions are part of a car specification and they can be On or Off; take it up with Volvo (or most other modern car manufacturers) if you are that much of an Ex-spurt..... ........if not,sod off.........................I don't care what your opinion is.:Yawn:
OK. So explain the consequences to you personally if, for whatever reason, you failed to pass the retest.
