Anyone who has ever visitted East Anglia will know that people in that part of the world couldn't drive nails into a piece of wood...
...so when I heard recently that concerns were being voiced about elderly people being unfit to drive on the road and that nothing was being done to ensure that these people weren't a danger to themselves and to others, I cracked a wry smile.
Currently, when you reapply for your driving licence, you have to self certify to say that you are fit to drive. Now, this seems a little strange to me as nobody is going to admit to being unfit unless they have to. After all, they want to carry on driving. It's like those stupid questions they ask you when you fill in a landing card to enter America. Questions like "Are you intending to enter in to any terrorist activities whilst in the United States?" I mean, you're not going to answer "Yes" are you?
The answer is really quite simple. When you reapply for a driving license, you go to your GP and get a signature from him to say that he thinks you're OK. Your GP should know if you have underlying problems and should be able to perform a simple examination to ensure you meet basic criteria.
This strikes me as yet another case of something where the politicians spout hot air and do nothing whereas, if they are serious, then the solution is fairly simple.
However, will it solve the problem? I once got banned for drink driving. Not something I'm particularly proud of, but it happened. When they let me out of the cell the next mornng after my night of ritual humiliation, I got a taxi to take me home.
When I told the driver why I was there, he said that he'd been banned once for 18 months for drink driving but that it hadn't presented a practical problem because the car didn't drive any different with or without a license. I can relate to this, because in East Anglia they can't drive or park. I'm amazed that some of them ever passed a driving test in the first place.
Then again, maybe they didn't...
3 comments:
As I'm rapidly heading to this status I have to admit to concern. Roads are public utilities so why should they not be open for use by anyone reasonably fit to use them?
That means old people too. Age is not an illness or a disability, it's a normal condition.
So older people may be slower and in your way but so what? Dogs being walked on the pavement are in the way of walkers, wheelchairs are in the way, children get in the way. Should we ban them from the streets?
Many medical conditions are reportable and licences 'suspended' for a while - I couldn't drive for some months after a heart attac -, so why should an OAP need to pay their doctor for a fitness certificate (because that's what would happen) in order to pop to the shops once a week when some daft 30 year old yummy mummy is allowed to wallow down the road in a 4x4 looking at the rear seat because she's distracted by a carload of kids at school pick up time? Maybe we should ban kids in cars unless another adult is there to supervise because drivers can't drive and supervise safely?
I have lost track of how many times I have been agravated by drivers - and it is more often women - wandering along at half traffic speed totally distracted because all their attention, complete with hand gestures arm waves and head pointing sideways, is directed towards a conversation with their passenger. Should we have a psychological test so that people unable to concentrate on the road and spending half their time turning to their passenger are banned from carrying a passenger?
The point is that nobody is perfect. We cannot and should not expect that every driver is always at 100% because people aren't. Do you suggest we should ban anyone with a cold, or anyone with stomach ache or headache from driving? Yet if you start to demand 100% fitness and minimum average reaction times from drivers that is where you are headed.
Rather we should expect our roads to cope safely with ordinary, sensible - but inperfect people.
You trust GP's?
Other than that what Woodsy42 said.
Your points are well made, Woody. Round here, the youngsters are worse than the old folk.
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