What are your views on this

ViolaLass

What I don't understand is this: if you somehow found yourself driving the wrong way up the motorway, wouldn't you turn round and head for the nearest junction (where you could cross safely to the other side)?

ruby-roo_2

I certainly would Violalass. Especially as this happened at around 4am apparently and the road was very quiet. I think the fact that the old woman didn't think to do this shows that she really isn't safe to be behind the wheel of any moving vehicle again.

cottonhead

I read this in the paper ( daily mail ) and there were pictures of the woman posing and smiling for the cameras. I think its because she is old that its not being viewed as that serious by some. It is very serious and she is so lucky she is still alive.
I recently lost a family member to a road accident and its terrible - words cant describe the upset and 'what if's ' you keep asking yourself.
So often the victims are the innocent people who get caught up in other peoples bad driving. her licence should be taken and never returned to protect her and other road users. Hopefully she will have family who will help take her places. I know it means a certain loss of independance but safety has to come first and we all get old someday ( if we dont get killed on the road first ) and there will be tasks - driving being one - that we just wont be able to carry on with.

ellay864

I also think there should be some kind of re-test...but having said that I'm sure many people would fail if they took the standard test again. But it's so potentially dangerous and it really is scary how many elderly unsafe drivers are out there. As rachbc said, there'd be an outcry over a teenager doing this.
I think there should also be some kind of test for people using scooters too. An old lady near us was driving on the wrong side of the road in hers recently and I came round the roundabout to find myself face onto her. God knows how she hasn't been in an accident already.

ruby-roo_2

I am very sorry for your recent loss cottonhead.

gingin_2

We had a note on our car the other day - it was one of our elderly neighbours calling us an "inconsiderate moron" it's all on-street parking and our car was touching the bumper of their car. Theirs was a red car - my car hadn't been moved for 5 days and I had made sure that when I did park I checked that the car in front ( a silver car) had enough room to get out. So all I can assume is that they reverse parked their car bumping ours, got out without even noticing, went back to their car later and assumed we had done exactly what they had done to us. Astounding.

I fully support retesting at a certain age but feel that the government don't want to cause a furore amongst older voters. The amount of dangerous, avoidable incidents I have seen with 75+ drivers is frightening. My father had to take my grandmother's car keys away from her at 87 and has told me to do the same to him when the time comes.

make_me_wise

I think having to do a resit at a certain age is a very good idea. Anything that brings down the number of accidents on the road has to be a positive thing. Only those that fear they are no longer fully able to drive would object to doing it.

the_cat

I agree that there is no chance of a retest being introduced. The fear of the grey vote turning on them will stop any party from dealing with this issue.

Those of you who know someone who is in your opinion unsafe.... have you reported your fears to the police? What do they do in that situation, does anyone know? Or are they powerless to act unless a motoring offense has been committed

poet123

A few years ago I followed a 93 year old neighbour out of our road and down towards our local superstore. He stopped at the lights and as they changed he pulled out and into the entry road to the store....except it was actually the exit lane and he hit a car which was leaving the store head on. He died a few months later but he clearly was unfit to drive at that point.

System

My StepFather drove longer than even he thought was probably wise due to the pressure he had from my Mother who didnt want to lose the independance of having a car and she didnt drive.

He just put his foot down one day and said no and within days the car had been sold. He drank himself into oblivion after that :-(.