Re the Sophie crash

[walkie]

If they don't actually take their license off them at an arbitrary age, say 70, why not make them start displaying a plate? They couldn't possibly claim discrimination, as if you're under 20 you are guaranteed to have to display a plate of some description.

Once you're onto your "Gs", you have to be retested annually. You aren't allowed on the road between 7am and 10am, nor 3pm and 7pm. Get caught driving at an absurdly low speed for no reason three times and you lose the license. Zero tolerance

[[ryan]]

Plates won't fix things unfortunately, it won't stop things like this. The fact is old people become dazed and confused and lose their senses over time, it's how life is. It's a shame to have to take away their 'freedom' but it's better than having more people injured or dead as a result of their negligent driving.

They should be tested every 2 years or something, a driving test, to see if they are still capable.

[TonyJZX]

old people have an extremely high voter turnout and they tend to vote conservatively ie. what they been voting since after the war.

they also tend to have some money and are quite ready to devote their abundant free time to fight for their causes.

[auscar]

Muz, everything's a repost today. *sigh* stupid internet.

Forg, the stats show that elderly drivers crash in similar numbers to P platers.

[ZenithRS]

Far out. What a load of bollocks in this thread. Anyone heard of age discrimination? Simple fact is there are good and bad drivers in every age group. Being 70 or more doesn't make you a danger.

[timtx5]

Usually I believe because they get the pedals mixed up and go throguha house, car park wall etc! All to often there is a story about an old lady going over the edge of a car park because she hit the go and not the stop pedal


It must be sad really, having to rely on others for everything, they just want some independance I guess. I think they just need to be made aware they should possibly get the independance on the bus instead.

An oldy did this in the work car park, managed to go through a few palm trees and over a 15cm high 1 1/2 foot wide kerb and garden bed before they managed to stop. Fortunately no one was parked on the other side. Im very glad my car has an alarm for the pure reason of some of the oldies, so at least if they hit it I will know about it. There has been so many small fender benders and scrapes in the work carpark is kind of scary. Only reason being its a place where a lot of older people frequently visit.... pathology.

[XAC15T]

Far out. What a load of bollocks in this thread. Anyone heard of age discrimination? Simple fact is there are good and bad drivers in every age group. Being 70 or more doesn't make you a danger.

Same with a 21 year old who is actually a GOOD driver. Yet, if they are on their p-plates they have to display them. I don't think a similar system will solve anything, but the idea is not in any way, shape or form discrimination.

[The Schapelle Guru]

Homer Simpson Voice: ""Old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so that it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use."

[aus9000T16]

Far out. What a load of bollocks in this thread. Anyone heard of age discrimination? Simple fact is there are good and bad drivers in every age group. Being 70 or more doesn't make you a danger.

Look out here comes the PC brigade.

[OMY30L]

In regards to elderly drivers, some responsibility should be placed on their siblings (if any). My elderly grandad (79 at the time) only drove occassionally from his house to ours. When he left one day, he took off and and just drove straight thru the roundabout in front of my house, and was nearly taken out by a car coming from the right, who had to get on the anchors (who had right of way)

He knew nothing of it.. "didn't see it"... but when we told him how close it was we were then able to convince him to give up his licence. He handed his licence in reluctantly a day later on our advice, not just for his safety but for others on the road as well.

[carazy]

The problem is that someone old might just be not paying attention the same way someone younger might not be paying attention.. yet the young person is an idiot and the older person should loose their licence.

I agree with regular testing over the age of 65 though. If you fail you can re-sit.. if you fail again your gone for a year.
Something like that.
It would suck for older people to loose their licence for good though, quite often they are the volenteers that do things for the community (my grandma for example works with meals on wheels) and taking that away from them will in some cases kill them.

Old people need to use things like the internet and computer games.. then they can stay at home and be fine with it

All they really need is a dedicated Battlefield 2 expansion pack.

[Jim]

Far out. What a load of bollocks in this thread. Anyone heard of age discrimination? Simple fact is there are good and bad drivers in every age group. Being 70 or more doesn't make you a danger.

Really. So is discriminating against an under 25 for insurance ok? Is it ok to offer insurance ONLY to people over 55?

Personally I want to see decent driver ed and training as part of licencing, and I want to see it tested every 10 years for people under 70 and every 5 years for people over 70.

It's not about discrimination, its about keeping dangerous people off the roads, be they a danger by choice or inability. And THAT has nothing to do with age.

[pepsi]

lol ACA/TT would never run a 'Elderly hoons putting our kids lives in danger' story, all their best viewers are that very demographic..

And they wouldn't be able to get the same 'incriminating' evidence, such as when they show the P platers speeding, then speed the tape up 2x.. If they sped up eldery drivers they'd just be doing the speed limit

Anyway, i agree with ZenithRS, every age group has its bad drivers,

The younger group has the ones who suffer from the 'im invincable and the best driver ever' syndrome

The middle aged group have the one who suffer from the 'oh ive been driving for 20 years, therefore i must be good' syndrome

And the oldies, they are just mega stubborn and won't hear of it, they used to walk to school in their bare feet, in the snow, dodging Japanese kamikaze planes left and right and warding off communism at every turn, so surely they can manage a car, after all, they helped invent them as well

But, lets not forget, these are all minorities in their respective groups, but i would still like to see driver training and testing become less ridiculous, at the moment, its a joke

[walkie]

Far out. What a load of bollocks in this thread. Anyone heard of age discrimination? Simple fact is there are good and bad drivers in every age group. Being 70 or more doesn't make you a danger.

So at what age do we stop discriminating against people, and let them begin driving? Should it not be an age thing, and we just let them go once they can see over the steering wheel? Or would that be discriminating against short people?

[Bulgogi]

I nearly got cleaned up about a week ago by some old lady in an X3 Excel at a roundabout, because she just ploughed straight through without checking to see if anyone was coming from her right-hand side or even slowing down.

I'm all for mandatory licence reviews every 5 years or so. Would eliminate quite a few incompetent people who got their licence from just going around the block and wouldn't have got it without at least trying several times under the current system. Some people should also be taught how to use roundabouts properly!