84 yr old wrong way on motorway

Muscle750

I see a 84 year old man decided to drive the wrong way on the M5 in the fast lane heading straight into on coming traffic causing 4 quite serious accidents, Is it not time that all people aged 60 and over should be tested medically etc for fitness to drive including eye sight etc. End of the day he could have killed people plus himself.

EssexExile

Of course young people never do that.

bod1467

I would wager that there are far more drivers 70+ that do this than 50-

Strider590

It happens quite often with older drivers, our media tend to keep it quiet though, unlike in the US where the authorities are really cracking down on dangerous elderly drivers.

It's not politically correct to go after elderly drivers in this country AND the authorities spend so much time and money telling us that speeding is the only cause of accidents, that letting us see any evidence to the contrary is totally out of the question.

There was one that drove the wrong way down the A449 near Worcester, late at night, almost every week for several years, did it because the central reservation didn't allow him to cross to the correct side of the road, so he drove 4 miles down the wrong side instead. Got stopped a few times, but carried on regardless, he was old enough that he felt he could do whatever he liked.

Gloomendoom

I think we should ban all high risk groups.

Every year we should examine the accident statistics and ban the group(s) that have the most accidents.

Eventually, everybody will be banned from driving and the UK will have the best road accident per head of population rate in the world.

arcon5

If we did that young drivers would have no chance!

People are all too quick to moan they should be retested or something when an elderly driver is involved in a serious accident. Yet insurance companies see them as some of the lowest risk drivers we have in the country.

SailorSam

Is this just a story that you made up Op ?
Because you haven't posted any link.

globalds

Reminds me of that joke where the old guy ends up driving the wrong way up the motorway and his wife at home hears an emergency news broadcast on the news warning drivers.

She phones him to tell him ..when he answers she tells him of a crazy driver going the wrong way up the motorway he is using ....His reply

"One of them ...There is bl00dy hundreds of them "

AdrianC

SailorSam wrote: »

Is this just a story that you made up Op ?
Because you haven't posted any link.

Two-second google for "84 wrong way motorway" finds...
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/elderly-man-who-drove-the-wrong-way-down-the-m5-remains-in-hospital/story-29673570-detail/story.html

Yes, there should be greater checks for elderly drivers.
There should be better checks for ALL drivers, with GPs having greater powers to pull licences.
There should also be periodic retests for ALL drivers, with increased frequency for new drivers and older drivers.

This is not news. Piggy-backing onto an isolated case never made great legislation.

SailorSam

AdrianC wrote: »

Two-second google for "84 wrong way motorway" finds...
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/elderly-man-who-drove-the-wrong-way-down-the-m5-remains-in-hospital/story-29673570-detail/story.html

Whether it's two seconds, or even less. If anyone wants to start a new thread it should be them that googles to find the link. Don't leave it to the rest of us.

A._Badger

If road safety advocates were really serious the first thing they would do is ban motorcyclists, who are in the highest risk category.

If they don't press for that first, they are usually grinding an axe against a particular group of drivers they happen to dislike for some reason.