Although this proposal, as reported in today’s Daily Mail, may at first seem worrying for the elderly driver, I’m sure most people would agree that it makes sense to ensure both eyesight and mental skills for the elderly are fit for the purpose of driving.  Driving is a potentially dangerous activity, and we should all take care to avoid driving if unfit in some way.  This can include our emotional and our mental states, as well as physical fitness.  At no matter what age any one of us can be struck down with a mental illness, such as depression, which temporarily makes us unfit to drive, and we should each be responsible enough to accept that, just as we would have to if we broke a limb.  Therefore, although these measures might at first appear to be discriminatory towards the elderly, it is a sad fact of life that our mental faculties, as well as our eyesight, do decline with age.  However, just as we know we can improve our brain power with mental exercises, so all of us can do something to maintain our driving ability by raising our standard of driving whilst we are still young, and ensuring we have regular refresher lessons, at least every 10 years, to help us to retain that ability.  Any driver over the age of 55 can have reactions as fast, often faster, than someone much younger if they have learned to spot and react to any potential hazard much earlier, thereby cancelling ‘thinking time’ from the stopping distances table.  Make sure you are a proactive, as opposed to a reactive driver.  And do ensure you have regular eyesight check-ups and that you wear your glasses if prescribed for driving - you know it makes sense!

Click on this link to read the full Daily Mail article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=510738&in_page_id=1770

Do you often find drivers are ‘tailgating’ you?  Do you feel you are being pressurised to drive faster?  Or do you choose not to look in your mirror so as to avoid all this?  If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of these, then you may be driving at a speed which is well below the limit and below that which conditions would allow.  Drivers who do this cause irritation to other drivers, who then take risks, effectively making you the dangerous driver!  The following tips should help you keep up with the flow:

• check your speedo - are you actually travelling well below the speed limit (eg 30 or 40 in a 60?) when it would be perfectly safe to go faster?
• raise your eyes higher - see our tip on ‘upside-down traffic lights’
• gradually increase your speed, a little at a time, until you find that (legal) speed which is still comfortable for you but keeps all but the most persistent of tailgaters away from you!  (We do all suffer from them from time to time, I’m afraid, most especially when keeping to a 30mph speed limit!)
• if you are catching up with another vehicle ahead, slow down early by simply releasing the throttle (lift your foot right off the accelerator); maintain a 4 second gap with the vehicle ahead - this will allow you good reaction time and will assist another driver if they choose to overtake
• if the gap you’ve left is filled, a momentary release of the throttle will give it back to you.  Don’t worry, you won’t be pushed further back, as the maximum you will lose is 2 seconds; it will take an awful lot of overtaking vehicles to make any significant difference to your progress!
• make sure you are constantly aware of what is happening around you by using your mirrors (including your side mirrors) frequently; gathering information throughout your driving is vital
• seek professional help.  Your handling of your vehicle controls may not have changed since you gained your licence but vehicles most certainly have!  Manufacturers have done a lot to make cars much easier to handle but drivers often fail to take advantage of this.  Although it is not possible to change ‘overnight’, having the knowledge about what it is possible to do, and the opportunity to practise in a quiet area, may well increase your confidence and bring back the pleasure to driving.

We, at caremotoring, would be delighted to help you, and hope you will make us your first port of call, but you may also like to explore other opportunities open to you:

• The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM)
• Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
• Your local County Council Road Safety Department - many now run the SAGE project, Safe Driving with Age.  (This is certainly the case for Norfolk County Council)