Elderly drivers should now face regular testing – Helen Martin

FOLLOWING the distressing deaths of those loved ones hit by coronavirus, two vehicle deaths hit the headlines last week in Edinburgh. At least one, possibly both, might have been a horrible outcome of lockdown easing.

James Harrison, a 36-year-old lead research nurse, ICU Covid worker, sportsman and athlete, husband and father, died after a collision between his cycle and a van on Mount Vernon Road. Many friends and colleagues gathered for a minute’s silence and, as an NHS hero, strangers also grieved.

A three-year-old child was killed when a 91-year-old lady driver veered off Morningside Road on to the pavement and struck the boy in his pram and his mum. The old lady wasn’t injured physically, but must be agonised with guilt.

Would these vehicles have been around during lockdown – who knows? But the Morningside tragedy raises one major issue. Should drivers be limited by age?

In rural, non-tourism areas with no buses, it’s always been very common for extremely old drivers to carry on behind the wheel with locals aware of them and avoiding disaster. I’ve experienced that years ago in both Wigtownshire and Ireland, having been warned they were driving into the village.

Now roads are busier, more intense with elderly drivers having to cope with buses, double lanes, traffic lights, changed routes or one-way developments, being aware of cyclists on either side of them, watching for pedestrians, and staying in control of their potentially deadly vehicle.

We have no idea what happened to the old lady in Morningside. The effects of age can include in blackouts, distractions, difficulties with leg movements, declining vision, side-effects of medication, driving a fairly new car with modern technical features to which they cannot adjust, and much more. A common elderly error is confusing the brake with the accelerator.

With such concentrated and busy road networks nowadays, we need more routine limitations for elderly drivers, something I suggest even though I’m just three years short of 70!

Would you agree or disagree that those aged 90 and over should simply no longer be permitted to drive?

Stopping any other elderly age groups shouldn’t involve a complicated and costly list of medical assessments, letters between different authorities, appeals and persuasion. A short, simple and relatively low-cost general assessment (not as much as a full driving test) could be carried out by experienced driving instructors or testers, for 80s and over, once every two years.

My current licence expires when I’m 70. It wouldn’t bother me to go through a similar assessment then and at 75.

Would people consider all that to be a form of ageism? I know “children” aged 40 to 60 who have tried to persuade their parents to quit getting behind the wheel. I know doctors feel in a terrible position when families ask them to assess ability or help to persuade elderly patients to give up driving. I like elderly people feeling confident and young-at-heart, fit and capable. Passing a driving assessment would feel like a gold star. Failing it would prevent them from risking their own, or anyone else’s life.

A couple of years ago, an 80-something lady drove straight into the passenger side of my husband’s car while he was driving. Luckily, he wasn’t injured.

It turned out the lady had early dementia. Her insurance company couldn’t even make contact with her so they had to pay for our repairs. How would she have felt if she really had injured or killed him?

How will the 91-year-old lady be coping with having killed a three-year-old? Even if her car’s mechanism was to blame, how she must wish she hadn’t been driving.

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