The Justification For Mandatory Driving Test For Drivers 65 Years Old or Over.

The minimum age of driving in the United Kingdom is 17 years. Any person under this age is barred by the law from driving a vehicle. The rationale for this restriction is that driving a vehicle, amongst other things, involves having the ability to make sound judgment. People under 17 years of age are assumed to not have this ability because their brain is not fully matured before 17 years and enough personal experience to form a sound judgment. Immediately a person reaches this driving age and passes the driving test, he or she can theoretically drive for life unless he or she commits a serious traffic offence such as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and is banned from driving by the court, or the driver can no longer drive due to underlying medical conditions.

Critics have argued that this current arrangement in which a driver is given a licence to drive a vehicle for life once that driver passes the driving test at 17 years of age is flawed. According to them, elderly drivers pose the greatest risk to both themselves and other road users on the roads because of the fact that a person’s ability to perform any demanding task such as driving a vehicle tends to decline markedly once that person is 65 years old or over. The critics are proposing a mandatory driving test for these older drivers to assess their competency in driving.

This mandatory driving test should not be as rigorous as the driving test undertaken by people under 17 years of age. The test should only assess key aspects of an older driver’s ability to drive a vehicle. It should measure for example the rate at which an older driver responds to emergency situations such as when a person runs across the road suddenly or when another vehicle pulls up without any warnings. The mandatory driving test should also assess the ability of the elderly driver to drive in poor weather conditions such as driving at night. It is hope that this assessment can help reduce the number of road accidents involving older drivers and make the roads safer for everyone.

Aside from the fact that the cost of running a mandatory driving test for elderly drivers will be enormous, statistics collated by RAC on road accidents appear not to support that drivers who are 65 years of age or older are the worst drivers on the roads. Instead of showing that elderly drivers are the worst drivers on the roads, these statistics show that the drivers who tend to be involved in most road accidents are drivers between 19 and 24 years of age. They also show that the number of road accidents involving older drivers is only slightly higher than the number of road accidents involving drivers between 25 and 65 years of age.

Therefore, the calls for a mandatory driving test for drivers who are 65 years old or over because they pose the greatest risk to our road networks is not necessary. These calls can be regarded as nothing more than the stereotypical views that younger people seem to have for older people which is older people are generally poor at performing any demanding task. Any measures designed to minimise road accidents and improve road safety should apply to all drivers.