www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-17245130
87 yr old man has accident - Police tell him he isn't fit to drive, but have no authority to stop him driving.
Three days later he mounts a pavement, kills a 16 yr old and sustains injuries that lead to his own death
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What power would you give the police? Perhaps a very short term suspension, no more than 72hrs, pending a fast track referral to DVLA medical advisor and with a high threshold to invoke process.
Not sure there is an answer; hard cases make bad laws.
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in bexhill where a lot of folk move to retire there are a very large percentage of old and past it drivers, many many very obviously dangerous, it amazes me more are not taken off the roads systematically by the police/justice system/doctors/family/etc.
one time i stopped a car being driven by an 80 + lady with her 50 + daughter in the passenger seat and told her in no uncertain terms that her car control was totally unacceptable to be on the roads and i appealed to the daughter to stop her driving! sadly they both looked at me as if i were a nutter, but if you had seen the driving you would have been staggered. i would have rang the police but thats just a waste of breath isnt it.
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>> one time i stopped a car being driven by an 80 + lady
>> i would have rang the police but thats just a waste of breath isnt it.
You mean you aren't the police retgwte? I can't help wondering how you stopped the old woman's car, and why you stopped it. Just call it curiosity.
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>> >> I can't help wondering how you stopped the
>> old woman's car, and why you stopped it. Just call it curiosity.
>>
>>
I'm curious too. I often see examples of awful driving, but I didn't know I had the power to stop the driver and hand out a lecture.
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Say n'more squire! - I lived in Bexhill for one of my property buying excursions, lucky to get out alive :(
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>> I lived in Bexhill for one of my property buying excursions, lucky to get out alive :(
Oh really Perro, exaggerated ageist attitudes apart, how can an old South London hooligan like you be so wimpish about a few jerky, mimsing provincials? Or perhaps they are all paragons of good driving down there in Cornwall. You will be 80 yourself long before the world comes to an end. Then see how you like all this whippersnapperish carping. Because I'm sure people like you will be even worse in 20 years' time or so.
I'm almost inclined to be ashamed of you. Freedom for crazed, blind, deaf, trembling old drivers! There are many on the road who pose worse risks.
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The answer is that by the time most of us here get to eighty, the swine will have banned us from driving.
I detest the way things are done these days, its almost as if certain stories are leaked so twerps like Jeremy Whine can drone on about it and get some half wits, who have nothing better to do than listen to his drivel, to say the right things.
Some of the comments and conversation on that excuse for a radio program begger belief.
Add the usual suspects and before you know it 'public opinion' has spoken and a course of events is set in motion.
Public opinion has a lot to answer for.
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I was 25 at the time, and had only recently moved from sowf lunden, so it came as a bit of a shock, to say the least.
We knew a copper in Bexhill, and he would relate how the vast majority of road traffic accidents in the area were caused by 'the old'.
Duffers are more robust in Cornwall, I find, - take my (only) neighbour, outside at 7.30am this morning chopping wood for her stove, sweeping up the fallen Camellia flowers, gave us a Cauli from her garden, then she drove her diesel Megane to Truro - she's in her 70's, has one of Iffy's hips + spinal trouble (uses a stair lift) but she keeps on trucking and is as right as ninepence (mentally)
The biggest problem down here are the scallywags who fly down the narrow country lanes thinking they are still on the blimmin M5
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...who fly down the narrow country lanes...
Those are the locals, especially at times of the year when there aren't many visitors.
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In less scolding mode, I have to admit that I have been driven by the odd old person whose driving was somewhere between utter pants and slightly scary. But it wasn't because they were old. It was because they were crap drivers and always had been.
And in confessional mode, I notice that I myself am not quite as Teflon as I used to be at the wheel. I am more easily dazzled by headlights than I used to be, and less gung-ho on unfamiliar roads (which can lead to annoying tailgating by Surrey eager beavers in BMWs on their way home from work). Seems to be a Surrey vice, tailgating. Indeed poor road manners are common there. I am also less steady than I used to be when e.g. lighting a cigarette in the twisties or adjusting the wireless.
All slows me down, although not significantly. Probably in the end I will lose the ability to do a burst of getaway-driver stuff when I feel like it. I will regret that. But meanwhile I probably use less fuel than I did, and still grind my teeth at the inelegant, hopelessly slow, fuel-wasteful driving styles of the arch-mimsers so prevalent on the South East's roads.
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Thinking back to 'A Year In Bexhill' some of the driving carried out by the chronologically challenged was, to put it mildly, quite shocking really, and I've never experienced anything like it in any other town I've been in,
and that includes Eastbourne.
Perhaps if I returned there today, I may find the slow pace of life quite suits me now.
:o)
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>> some of the driving carried out by the chronologically challenged was, to put it mildly, quite shocking really
I expect frequent annoying driving and occasional dangerous driving from motorists of all ages. And I am not disappointed.
:o}
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If you fail the eye sight test you should have your licence revoked until you get glasses and opticians and a doctor signs a form to say you're fit to drive.
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>> you should have your licence revoked until you get glasses and opticians and a doctor signs a form to say you're fit to drive.
What, just so that the borough psychiatrist can sign a form saying you aren't fit to drive at all, forcing you to pull rank and get someone in Harley Street to sign an illuminated vellum form to say you are fit to drive, so there?
Honestly Sheikha, do you think we're made of money?
'The less said the better on this one.'
(Mr Magoo)
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The news article states the old gent had failed an eye test a few days earlier.
So is there no provision for imeadiate revocation on the grounds of a lack of fitness?
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>> The news article states the old gent had failed an eye test a few days
>> earlier.
>>
>> So is there no provision for imeadiate revocation on the grounds of a lack of
>> fitness?
All they can do is to tell him to stop driving, they cant seize his vehicle to prevent him from doing so the next day. The court has the power to ban, not the police, all they can do is report the offence.
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What's the answer ? - Bromptonaut
