Should senior citizens be banned from driving? An accident nearly happened

[blacknight]

On my way back from groceries in the pouring rain, I was nearly T-boned by someone's grandfather driving this tiny bling bling gold Toyota. It happened at a cross junction, the lights turned green and I had the right of way. I did notice the other Toyota, but he FAILED to come to a stop in the rain. In a split second, I sped up and narrowly missed being hit. I did a u-turn on the street and flashed my highlights at this other driver. He stopped (in the middle of the damn road) and started saying some kind of jibberish. I punched the side mirror of his crappy Toyota to let him know I wasnt kidding around and then he spoke perfect 'English'

To make a long story short, I reported this driver over to some friends at the local station and got his records. Back at home, I got a call saying this driver had previous records of driving without a license and he's 65!!!

Now I'm thinking, how many other people are taking chances out there in the streets.

Sorry for a long post, I'm not aiming at those people in the golden generation. I was brought up thinking that older people should know better!

[heyitsEnricoPallazzo]

In short no. But perhaps retested once in a while.

[MikesCalais]

In short no. But perhaps retested once in a while.

Wouldnt be such a bad idea for ALL drivers really.

[Hangman]

They are retested yearly after a certain age aren't they?

[minux]

I'd prefer younger people banned. Sick of being around the mindless twats on the roads. I'd take a blind old fart on the roads over some of these young idiots anyday. Are younger people becoming more and more stupid? Or just do not simply give a crap about anyone else?

[blacknight]

yes minux bear, i do have MORE hair raising experiences with younger drivers who do not seem to care about other road users. In Brunei, the driving laws are just laws on paper. But there is no reinforcement. So speeding, lane cutting, light jumping, double parking and idiotic parking are commonplace. I'd rather see a re-test for ALL drivers after 2-3 years. The funny thing is across the border, these same drivers abide by the rules because they know they have a reputation for being reckless.

[87RB30VL]

TBH I've had more bad experiences with old people that I have with younger drivers. With young people, it's like, lane cutting, or speeding/swerving through traffic, which makes me mad but I don't really care, but with OLD people, it's looking out your window and seeing them veering into your lane, or watching them fail to stop, OR, the WORST one, is when they go 50 through a 60 zone, but then go 80 when it turns into a 70 zone? WTF. I think old people need to be retested, but I also think everyone needs a refresher course at some stage through life. At the end of the day it's the younger people (I mean like, anyone less than 65 years) who have the better reaction times etc, and while the older people may have more experience, it doesn't neccessarily make them better drivers.

The guy who t-boned my old honda was an old man, driving WAY more than the 80km speed limit, in the rain, with no lights on, and the reason he hit me was because he swerved out of the way of the backed-up traffic on a blind corner

[ClairBear]

I punched the side mirror of his crappy Toyota to let him know I wasnt kidding around

I think people who have anger issues and can't civilly talk through a near miss without resorting to violence should be taken off the road until they have attended anger management classes.

Would rather have an old man to deal with than an irrational person who damages cars just because of a near miss.

[Calaber]

TBH I've had more bad experiences with old people that I have with younger drivers. With young people, it's like, lane cutting, or speeding/swerving through traffic, which makes me mad but I don't really care, but with OLD people, it's looking out your window and seeing them veering into your lane, or watching them fail to stop, OR, the WORST one, is when they go 50 through a 60 zone, but then go 80 when it turns into a 70 zone? WTF. I think old people need to be retested, but I also think everyone needs a refresher course at some stage through life. At the end of the day it's the younger people (I mean like, anyone less than 65 years) who have the better reaction times etc, and while the older people may have more experience, it doesn't neccessarily make them better drivers.

The guy who t-boned my old honda was an old man, driving WAY more than the 80km speed limit, in the rain, with no lights on, and the reason he hit me was because he swerved out of the way of the backed-up traffic on a blind corner

This subject pops up pretty frequently. It's indicative of the problems faced by every road user, regardless of age. The younger drivers will always feel that the oldies shouldn't be on the road, or should be tested more frequently. The oldies say the younger drivers are the problem.

Let's face it - we all make mistakes on the road. Some younger drivers are more aggressive, impatient and impetuous, taking chances at inapproprate times and some older drivers are lacking in physical fitness and comprehension skills, underestimating distances and speed and lacking confidence as they age.

I'm nearly 60 and I certainly don't feel like a "younger person". I know my reflexes are less than they used to be - my sight certainly is worse after a medical problem suffered recently. However, I am aware of my limitations and drive well within them, but unlike a lot of older drivers, I don't believe that lengthy driving experience is an excuse for inconsiderate or irresponsible driving. I realise I have to fit in with other motorists and drive in a way that doesn't endanger others. In particular, keeping left on multi-lane roads, keeping a safe distance from the car in front - basic stuff, learnt early in my driving experience but adhered to rigidly as I get older.

I've had near misses with old farts and it makes me bloody angry to see the stupid things they do, but I live in an area where P platers are predominant and they make me just as angry with their selfish actions on the road. No age group is immune from stupidity, ignorance or negligence.

Our licensing laws are to blame for the poor standard of driving. Not just the lack of re-testing on a regular basis (for all age groups, not just the older ones), or even the low standard initially required to get a license, but also the ease with which non-English speaking people can acquire a license.

Live with it. It's a fact of life.

[mr calais 5.0]

There has to be a test for drivers over a certain age.. They say p players are dangerous and yer some are but it's the oldies as well.. My mate saw a 85 year old lady plow up the rear of a garbage truck yesterday and the back of the truck was only a few inches from her face because she didn't see that the truck had stopped to pick up bins..

[blacknight]

Thats very true. Being a victim of a drunk driver before that left me temporarily blinded, I have zero tolerance ending up in hospital because of some old fart.

[Jesterarts]

Riiiight... so why are we punching mirrors?

And did you happen to mention this in your police report?

I don't agree that seniros should be banned.

There should be a blanket campaign for ALL drivers that requires re-testing every 5 years upto the age of 60 and then every 2 years there after.

Having said all this, in your case, banning seniors form driving wouldn't have made a difference since he was already driving without a licence. Hmmm.

Tougher driver testing to get a licence, retesting of ALL drivers, much harsher penalties for road rule violations (such as sitting in right lane when they should be keeping left as I think THIS is more dangerous than someone going 10kmph over.) and a general change of attitude towards driving as it's a privilage and not a right!

The above would make roads safer, ease congestions as ALOT of people would no loger be on the roads, reduce maintenance cost of roads since fewer vehicles would be using them and cut pollution from car emissions.

So much win you'll need a win-dam to contain it all.

[nathanVY]

I'd prefer younger people banned. Sick of being around the mindless twats on the roads. I'd take a blind old fart on the roads over some of these young idiots anyday. Are younger people becoming more and more stupid? Or just do not simply give a crap about anyone else?

Give it a rest mate, not all of us are mindless retards. Some of us actually have half a brain, sometimes you get carried away and you might make a mistake but its a small percentage.

If they make it much harder to get your license, they may as well ban it - it's already ridiculous, not to mention the crap you have to put up with for 4 years on your p's.

I wonder what's gonna happen when you get your wish minux and we abandon teaching the younger generations how to drive and just label them and ban them instead - 10-20 years time no one can drive? ha

[Big_Simmo]

Id prefer to see younger people banned too.
Older folks driving slow or a little wonkey I can tolerate,
Idiot impatient younger drivers speeding, swerving, cutting off trafic, not paying enough attention should be banned.

But I might be bias since it was a P plater who almost killed me and totally destroyed my lifestyle and future prospects by giving me several broken bones and a head injury which will inflict my life until the day I die. Bitch put me in hospital for 9 damn months, but back on track oldies should get retested after 65 and youngins should be taken off the road for minor infringements until they learn top treat the road and their license with respect.

btw im only 26

[jakstas]

You know whats cool? Stereotypes.

Also - OP - If your going to 'assume' some kind of authority and try and pull people over in your car, and punch their cars, if morons like you that should be off the road. Wanker.

leave policing to the police.

[Banicks]

The older drivers hate the younger ones, the younger ones hate the older ones.

Me? I hate any who can't drive. As far as I'm concerned, 9 out of 10 people, regardless of age, race or car cannot friggin drive.

But if stereotyping is what makes you think your argument is correct, go ahead everyone. To me, OP experienced an isolated incident, don't generalise.

[Jesterarts]

Give it a rest mate, not all of us are mindless retards. Some of us actually have half a brain, sometimes you get carried away and you might make a mistake but its a small percentage.

If they make it much harder to get your license, they may as well ban it - it's already ridiculous, not to mention the crap you have to put up with for 4 years on your p's.

I wonder what's gonna happen when you get your wish minux and we abandon teaching the younger generations how to drive and just label them and ban them instead - 10-20 years time no one can drive? ha

I was nodding until I got to the highlighted bit...

Err... what? Make is HARDER to get a licence?!? At the moment it's the easiest thing in the world! You can to not break any road rules and check your mirrors for 15min with a guy and a notepad in the back.

You don't have to demonstrate good judgement in a complex situation, you don't have to demonstrate good car control or perform any emergency manouvers.

And what crap on P's? Once again, you have to drive in a manner that doesn't attract attention and not break any road laws. On occasion you will be pulled over for a RBT and a vehicle check. It's not like you have to jump through hoops to keep your licence. in fact you ahve to try rather hard to loose it.

The entire system is currently a joke. We have parents teaching their kids how to drive, the issue is that 95% of the parents have no ####ing clue about road rules or car control to start with.

There should be a test parents need to undertake to check they are actually capable of instructing a young driver. So many times I've seem L plater cars sitting in the right hand lane cruising at 10kmph under the limit being "SAFE". Then when I blast them with the horn and flash my lights to get them to move, I get abused at the next lights by the parent who is completly oblivious of the "KEEP LEFT" rule. This is basic stuff.

And then I'm not surprise to find a majority of P-platers sitting in the right lane because that's what mum and dad taught them.

Whole system is a joke currently.

Young drivers on the road have no idea and thing they are invincible, middle age drivers are on the roads have no idea but thing they are great drivers because they have "experience" and old drivers on the roads have no idea and seem to have issues distinguising between the brake and accelerator.

On top of this you have to add all the drivers out there who are just plain ####ing idiots and the roads are all in all a rather dangerous place.

Very rarely do you actually meet someone who is a good driver and more often than not these are NOT the people who self proclaim themselves to be "safe drivers".

Remember the "Drive Right" program thing? I used to stay WELL clear of any car with that Drive Right or whatever sticker because I knew that the person driving that car was under the miss conception that not having any major accidents in the last 2 years makes them a good driver.

I've been in 4 collisions in my driving time and I've been run over crossing once.

1. I had a yongish bloke out of a road in front of me and I t-boned them - He was about early 30's
2. I had a 4wd back into me - Order bloke in his 40's
3. My ex-gf ran a red light and t-boned a car - She was 21 and off her P's. She alwasy talked about how good a driver she was.
4. I had a p plater in a 4wd try and merge over the top of my bimmer because she "didn't see me"
5. Was crossing the road and a ped crossing and an old timer cleaned me up. I ended up on his bonnet holding on and he was so in shock he didn't brake or nothing. Rason we stopped was because we crashed into a pole about 10m down the road.

Even spread across the age groups of people know knowing how the #### to drive.

ANd because of the current system, bad habits and lack of knowledge gets passed down from generation to generation.

[monkeys437]

Id prefer to see younger people banned too.
Older folks driving slow or a little wonkey I can tolerate,
Idiot impatient younger drivers speeding, swerving, cutting off trafic, not paying enough attention should be banned.

The difference is Young drivers improve with time, whilst old drivers continue to get worse

[minux]

Give it a rest mate, not all of us are mindless retards. Some of us actually have half a brain, sometimes you get carried away and you might make a mistake but its a small percentage.

If they make it much harder to get your license, they may as well ban it - it's already ridiculous, not to mention the crap you have to put up with for 4 years on your p's.

I wonder what's gonna happen when you get your wish minux and we abandon teaching the younger generations how to drive and just label them and ban them instead - 10-20 years time no one can drive? ha

Its hard to get alicence now? What a load of crap. They TEACH you to pass the bloody test FFS. Not once do they teach you to drive.

Clearly you missed my complete opposite cynical point of the OP's.

[Stressball]

I think people who have anger issues and can't civilly talk through a near miss without resorting to violence should be taken off the road until they have attended anger management classes

^^ This. Just coz you feel like stomping the crap out of a knob who nearly cost you $10,000 in damage or whatever, doesn't mean you act on your impulses. Bill Burr put it best; he describes himself as a 'functioning psycho'. One who thinks about ####ing shit up... But restrains themself. As opposed to psychos in general, that lash out and hit things/people etc.

...younger drivers speeding, swerving, cutting off trafic, not paying enough attention...

With the exception of speeding, I see all of these things from older drivers far more often than I do with younger ones. Tunnel vision is very prevalent in the older drivers, at least around this area. Of course you see young drivers do it too, but not anywhere near as much.

...this driver had previous records of driving without a license and he's 65!!!

So, what good would banning/retesting do if he's going to drive, with or without a licence...? Your gripe is with selfish, thoughtless, idiots. Perhaps the kind of idiot that deliberately causes damage to other people's property out of frustration? Not particularly with older drivers.

[minux]

I see with the exception of speeding, I see all of these things from older drivers far more often than I do with younger ones. Tunnel vision is very prevalent in the older drivers, at least around this area. Of course you see young drivers do it too, but not anywhere near as much.

Considering in most states P Platers(easiest way to identify young drivers) make up less than 15% of all road users, then you should RARELY see it. Sadly down here almost every wank you see has a red or green P plate. Hence why our government keep making things harder for them, over represantation tends to do this.

[Stressball]

Considering in most states P Platers(easiest way to identify young drivers) make up less than 15% of all road users, then you should RARELY see it. Sadly down here almost every wank you see has a red or green P plate. Hence why our government keep making things harder for them, over represantation tends to do this.

You're right, it should be less obvious because there are less of them. As it happens, that is exactly the case. The worst driving I see is actually done by middle aged drivers on full licences, and I see it frequently. Without a word of a lie, I would say 1 in 5 cars I see on the road break laws regularly (if you don't count speeding, coz then it's more like 2 in 3); whether it's cutting people off, not indicating, veering way outside their own lanes, whatever.

People rarely see shit driving by a non-p plated car and think 'it's not just p platers then, is it'. They see it, and they bitch under their breath that some people shouldn't be on the road, but no specifics come of it. As soon as you put an easy identifier into the situation, like a p plate (or perhaps a japanese turbo car? Some seem to think this way..) it becomes much easier to attribute the driving to a more specific bunch of people. Even easier if you're not part of that group yourself. I see shit driving by p platers, sure. But I see a hell of a lot more shit driving by open licence holders, easily more than the remaining 85% of open licence holders should represent.

Maybe it's just a QLD thing; everyone up here sucks royal ass at driving

[Julie]

I think it is harder to get a licence now so I don't know what the hell you all talking about there ?? Yes you are trained to pass the test if you go through professional training but same shit was happening 20 years ago. Nowadays one needs amount of power, they have curfews, passenger limitations, harsher p plater penalties to keep a log book and have x amount of hours signed off before sitting for p's they need to do several tests to get full licence, they are restricted to use cars with over x and 0.00 BAC and a much higher cost involed in all these steps. 15 years ago when I was eligible to get my p plates it was waaaaaaaaaaaay easier. You go in when you turn 16, sit a piss easy test for your l plates a year later you do your driving test, you pass you get your p plates, easy as you stay on your ps's for a year you get your full licence then you can even teach learner drivers despite just turned 18. There was only one easy driving test to pass, you could drive whatever you wanted, carry as many passengers you want when you want (seat limitations obviously), you have 4 demerit points so you were actually able to get pinged a couple of times before losing licence, no log books and hell you were even allowed a BAC of 0.02.

I don't think there is a problem with licencing of young people. I think it is just a fact of life that young people can be stupid and take stupid risks. No amount of extra restrictions or training will change this. It is the morons breaking the rules that cause the problems anyway so even if you do tighten the rules there will still be morons around to break them.

I think everyone should be retested every 5 years or so and older people more frequently as their skills diminish. A lot of older people I know don't even know the road rules and there have been many changes since they got their licence. I think there are a lot of senior drivers that should not be on the road and have found them particularly scary in the car park where they just back out without looking. There are also a lot of p plater morons but the difference is police target them and get them off the road and they are allowed fewer mistakes but useless old drivers are not targeted and given more opportunity to make mistakes.

I find it concerning that these older drivers can go do the compulsory driving test after certain age, fail it and still be given a restricted licence where they are allowed to drive within a certain radius of their home. That is just asking for trouble. My nan in her late 80's recently had to get her licence after my pop passed away. She hadn't driven for a good 30 years and essentially did not know how to drive nor had the physical ability yet she was able to get one of these licences. She has since handed in her licence realising she was incapable. Its a relief to know shes not on the road but scary knowing there are plenty just like her that are.

[calais24/7]

My 2c, the amount of times i have been in a near miss/avoided an accident with a p plater is 0, howeever with an old person it would be atleast 5. Im not bullshitting this just because im a p plater either. I'd rather laugh at some ######## p plater in an excel swerving through traffic then have an old dear not see a give way or stop sign and hit me.

A poll should be added into this thread

[elmaso]

some yeah, some no, i've seen the old folks with no depth perception and while there at the lights are sitting about 6 meters away from the car in front, thats not bullshit either!
and the others who are hunched over the steering wheel only doing 10km/h.
but some of the worst drivers i've seen (in my short time of driving) are mums ####ing hammering to get their kids from school with their 4x4's, i swear some of them have to sit on phone books to see over the ####ing dash!