What are your views on this

Lunar_Eclipse

Oh dear, 19 hours! That will also explain why she kept going, since presumably she was exhausted and unable to think sensibly. She's clearly mentally incapable of driving a car or a mobility scooter. I find it really worrying that she can still drive that actually.

I'm also surprised they only banned her from driving for 15 months, although I know she's unlikely to get her license again and perhaps they can't remove it completely.

Thank goodness no-one was injured or killed.

LandyAndy

fluffnutter wrote: »

It's an often suggested idea. I think there are a few problems with it; 1) the expense, although this would fall primarily to each individual and would hence be diluted 2) we'd need a lot more driving examiners! (but more jobs perhaps?) 3) many accidents are caused by driver inexperience, either because someone has only recently passed their test or because they drive infrequently. It's not bad habits that cause accidents (apart from excessive speed), so it's not clear whether getting people to repeat their test will make much difference. For me the jury's still out on whether regular tests will save lives.

In terms of which age groups are the most hazardous on the roads, that accolade goes inevitably to young men (17 - 24). Following that, however, are older women (65+). It's thought to be due to the fact that for the majority of their lives they've driven very infrequently as that's the 'man's job'. Then their husband dies or becomes infirm and, so as not to lose independence, the wife gets behind the wheel. She's timid, she's out of practice, she's old herself. It's an accident waiting to happen.

Another thing worth considering... Britain's roads are still among the safest in the world. In terms of how busy our roads are, how many people drive and how small the country is, we have relatively few deaths/serious accidents.

I agree.;)

My initial post was more a reaction to the kneejerk 'all over 70's should be retested' comments.

Inexperience is a massive problem. My DS1 has just passed his test at 17 (with just 2 minors, so he didn't 'scrape' through). What he doesn't see is amazing to me (I passed my test 37 years ago) but most of it is in reading the subtle signs that other road users give out of their intentions. You only get that with experience so initially he has to drive and hope he picks up the experience without an accident.

LandyAndy

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Oh dear, 19 hours! That will also explain why she kept going, since presumably she was exhausted and unable to think sensibly. She's clearly mentally incapable of driving a car or a mobility scooter. I find it really worrying that she can still drive that actually.

I'm also surprised they only banned her from driving for 15 months, although I know she's unlikely to get her license again and perhaps they can't remove it completely.

Thank goodness no-one was injured or killed.

I think it is an appropriate sentence. Although what she did was very dangerous in the end there was no accident and no injury. You can't really sentence people for what they might have done.

I strongly suspect she won't bother to take a retest so in effect she is banned permanently. If she took a test and passed then I see no reason why she shouldn't drive again.

TudorRose

I fully agrre about the incompetence of some mobility scooter users.
I was run into by one when standing at the customer service desk of my local supermarket last week & when I hold him I thought he was incompetent and that if I did the same with my car I'd be prosecuted, he told me to shut up. Charming! This is the same man I have seen on many occasions riding up the middle of the road where I live when we have perfectly adequate pavements on both sides of the road. Bet he'd be the first to blame the car driver if he had an accident.
Also a couple of years ago I was in Argos when I heard an almighty bang. I turned round and a woman on a scooter had backed into a metal door by the side of the counter. She was incapable of moving the scooter away so a member of staff sat her down & moved it. The dent on the door was huge & deep because of the impact. Thank goodness nobody was standing there when she crashed.