Banishing older drivers.

The licensing of older drivers discussion paper has been released - and there is no doubt that the New South Wales government is determined to banish older drivers from the road system.
The present system - which has served us well for years - calls for compulsory medical checks at age eighty - and a compulsory driving test at eighty five.
The new proposal advances the medical check to age seventy five - and replaces the driving test at eighty five with the cancellation of a drivers full license in favour of a new license category - which restricts driving to within ten kilometre radius of place of residence for city drivers - with an extension to the nearest shopping centre for country drivers.
With a stroke of the pen the government has saved itself the cost of holding driving tests for those eighty five and over - and imposed a " one size fits all " restriction on where older drivers can travel in their cars.
For most, the days of paying a visit to the children or the grand kids is out of the question - as is the prospect of an annual holiday to some pleasant place more than ten kilometres from home.
But - there is relief for any driver who objects. That person may request the Roads and Traffic Authority ( RTA ) to conduct a driving test to have a full license restored.
Of course, such a test will be at that drivers expense, and considering that the government wants to ban all older drivers - and the RTA will make the rules that govern such a test - it will be a case of submitting to a Kangaroo court with a predictable outcome.
In the event that the older driver prevails and has a full driving license restored -that will be for just one year - and then the whole business of license cancellation and ten kilometre restriction will again apply. Obviously the government hopes that by making it difficult and expensive the average driver will just give up and accept the inevitable.
Strangely, accompanying this discussion paper are statistics that run against the reason for making a change.
One graph compares driving fatality rates by age and - surprise - surprise - drivers over eighty are miles ahead in safety stakes in comparison with younger drivers in particular and all ages in general.
The government is probably on the right track bringing medical checks forward to age seventy five. This will have several advantages. It will force those who haven't seen a doctor in years to have an annual checkup - and it will weed out those with eyesight problems, physical disabilities - and mental degeneration that reduces the decision making ability necessary for driving decisions.
The banning of licenses and their replacement by a distance restriction seems more a case of looking good and being seen to be doing something. Heavier restrictions have been placed on younger drivers and our politicians want to be seen as egalitarian and spreading the pain widely.
That second graph simply reinforces something that is widely known anyway. Older people are more likely to suffer fatal injuries from any type of accident.
But - it seems that while older drivers are safer drivers than the general herd, they are over represented as pedestrian casualties - and yet this very piece of suggested legislation is designed to get them out of their cars - and turn them into pedestrians.
Its called " real-politic ".!