Driving Licenses - and Age !

When is the right age to hand in your driving license - for your own safety and the safety of others ? There is no hard and fast rule here in New South Wales, but the RMS has the legal right to cancel a drivers license if they decide the holder no longer has the capacity to safely drive on the states roads.  They can insist on a driving test to determine driving ability.

Older drivers in this state must obey graded license requirements.  From age 80 they are required to have a doctor conduct a medical examination each year and certify their fitness to drive and from 85 they are required to have both this medical evaluation and be tested behind the wheel by a RMS driving evaluator.

The RMS may allows an aged driver to continue driving, but with restrictions. These may range from a ban on night driving to limitations relating to the drivers home and proximity to nearby shops.  He or she may be banned from driving on high speed highways or from the heavy traffic of the inner city.

Age can certainly cause a drivers road skills to deteriorate and dementia is a growing hazard.  Often it is family members who are growing concerned about their aged members driving lapses and in some states doctors have a mandatory duty to recommend license withdrawal if they consider holding a driving license poses a continuing danger.   The medical profession generally dislikes that responsibility because it can be very disruptive to the close relationship between doctor and patient.

The number of aged drivers is increasing sharply as the car becomes an ever more important means of personal mobility.  In March 2018 there were 167,721 drivers 80 years or over licensed to drive on NSW roads, and this was an increase on the 136,140 registered in 2013.   Ten years ago the numbers represented only 98,280 drivers.

We often read of accidents where an older person mistook the accelerator for the brake.  The ravages of diabetes can cause the loss of feeling in the legs and an otherwise mentally alert person may lack the physical capability to control a car.  Sight and hearing deteriorate with age and every year the traffic volume increases measurably as the Australian population moves past twenty-four million.

This is not something to which a hard and fast rule can apply.   Driving ability can deteriorate markedly from one year to the next despite that annual medical check being a very comprehensive evaluation - and which includes eye sight testing.

Perhaps certification for a shorter period may be helpful.   Where a person qualifies to drive but physical deterioration is evident a six month license continuation would ensure a timely re-evaluation - and perhaps deliver a message to that driver that his or her driving days were coming to an end.  It would tend to deliver that message more gently than an abrupt cancellation.