Give plan for mandatory tests wide berth

The road toll is being used to support claims for mandatory testing and annual medical checks for older drivers. Some experts even suggest an S-plate – to warn other drivers to give them a wide berth. Last year’s road toll indicates that 160 men and 82 women died on our roads. Does the disproportionate number of men being killed indicate they are worse drivers than women? Should, then, all men be regularly tested, irrespective of whether they’ve had an accident?

The push to screen all older drivers for the sake of the few who are at risk should be resisted. Not all older drivers are poor drivers, just as not all young drivers are hoons. Ways to help older people stay on the road and drive safely should be publicly supported. To do anything else discriminates purely on the basis of age rather than an individual’s capacity.

There are many ageist assumptions regarding older people’s capacity to drive. It is assumed an older person’s functional decline – such as diminished eyesight and slower reflexes – leads to unsafe driving. But usually older drivers are aware of their limitations and modify their habits. They drive only during daylight, avoid peak hour, drive more slowly, take short trips and use well-known routes on local roads.

Research has repeatedly shown that testing does not make the roads or the older driver safer. In the mid 1990s, Liisa Hakamies-Blomqvist compared Finnish and Swedish licensing practices. At the time, Finland required regular medical check-ups in conjunction with licence renewal starting at age 70, whereas Sweden had no age-related control. The comparison showed no reduction in car crashes as a result of the Finnish program.

Hakamies-Blomqvist also noted some disadvantages associated with age-based mandatory assessment. Finland had a higher rate of older pedestrians being killed than Sweden, presumably the result of an increase in the number of older people walking rather than driving.

Accidents involving older people occur mostly at below-average speeds. However, when an older person has a car accident, they have a higher risk of severe injury or death due to their increased frailty. A crash that leaves a teenager with bruises can put an older person in hospital for a week with rib and sternum fractures.

Rather than force older drivers to take mandatory road tests in the absence of any incidents, greater consideration should be given to road design and traffic control to accommodate them. Monash University’s Accident Research Centre also suggests informing older road users of situations where they are most vulnerable and ways they can minimise their risk of injury.