WE live in an age where facts and stats are constantly at our fingertips, brought out and used as ammunition whenever we put forth arguments and opinions.
But sometimes, you don’t need to be armed with hard evidence; your common sense and life experiences are all you need.
So, when I heard that there was a proposal to force motorists aged over 70 to undergo refresher courses and medical tests every five years in order to renew their licence, I didn’t need to access a slew of facts on road safety, accidents, and deaths on Google or Wikipedia.
As a motorist for 35 years, and one who fears the standards of driving are deteriorating to worrying levels in recent times, I instinctively knew this idea was a load of baloney.
What are the European Commission - the ‘brains’ behind this daft plan - thinking?
Fair enough, the safety of the continent’s roads is a pressing problem, particularly here in Ireland where we are heading for levels of road deaths in 2023 not seen since the bad old days of a decade or more ago.
But I would posit that the over 70s are in fact the safest, slowest, most courteous and cognisant of the rules of the road of all of the age cohorts.
Refresher courses? Medical tests? How insulting! They should be the ones giving the refresher courses!
I could hand the European Commission a list of areas where new rules could make a difference to the toll of tragedy, which don’t penalise the safest group.
Here’s a few, just off the top of my head:
All of these measures would have an immediate impact in Ireland, and only the last one has an age factor - but having said that, I would wager that few over 70s would be troubled if any of the above policies came into play.
Teenagers and young people, however, would have cause to change their behaviour. We call them boy racers, not geriatric racers, for a reason.
The next generation up would also have to adapt their behaviour - the busy, impatient parents in their SUVs on the school run, or the people in work vans and trucks being driven to distraction by satnavs, hands-free phones, Google maps, eircodes, and all other manner of gadgetry.
The over 70s? The safest people behind the wheel? There is simply no need to introduce legislation to address a problem that doesn’t exist.
Not alone would such proposals be unnecessary and ineffective, they would also be damaging. Taking mobility away from the elderly would potentially isolate them and reduce their independence.
Not only that, but forcing elderly drivers from their cars could lead to more elderly pedestrians - and a third of all people aged over 65 killed in road traffic collisions are pedestrians, with the figure as high as 50% for fatalities in older women.
This mess of a plan also sends the complete wrong message to older motorists - that they are somehow a burden on society. “Get outta my way, grandad, coming through!”
The Commission seems to be under some illusion that older people are a major problem on our roads, but as Professor Desmond O’Neill, chairperson of the Irish Society of Physicians in Geriatric Medicine, pointed out this week: “This is the myth that won’t die – that older drivers are more dangerous and that by screening them, we reduce crashes.”
Professor O’Neill is vehemently opposed to the plan for refresher courses and medical tests for over 70s, and pointed out that there was a widespread body of international research which demonstrated what most of us know already - that older drivers are the safest group of motorists on roads around the world.
Besides, there are already measures in place in regards handing out driving licences to the elderly.
In Ireland, motorists aged 65-71 can renew a licence up to their 75th birthday, while those aged 72-74 are only able to obtain a three-year licence. Any motorist aged 75 or over can get either a one or three-year licence, subject to certification of fitness to drive by their doctor.
The good news is that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar - a former GP, let’s not forget - is also minded to oppose this European Commission proposal.
“Frailty affects people much later in life than it used to and I see loads of people in their 70s and early 80s who are as sharp mentally and physically as many people in their 40s and 50s are,” he said this week.
“I think it does make sense not to have kind of strict cut-off ages, but actually to assess people based on their cognitive ability and their physical ability,” he added.
Exactly. The European Commission proposal is not only ageist, it is utterly wrong-headed. A car crash, in other words.
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