Put elderly to the test for safer roads
IT is time we make specific medical tests mandatory for aged drivers. There have been too many cyclist fatalities and serious accidents where drivers have been found to be at fault due to physical impairments. The risk is also to their own wellbeing.
The TAC says “drivers aged 75 years or over have a higher risk of being killed in a crash than any other age group. Many are perfectly capable of driving safely, yet physical and mental changes that often come with ageing can affect how well older people drive.”
Victoria Police tell us that, based on fatalities per kilometre travelled, drivers aged 65 and over are seven times more likely to be killed than the lowest risk age group.
This is becoming critical, with more older drivers and more cyclists on our roads. As our population ages, older drivers are becoming more of a risk due to increased frailty and issues associated with ageing.
As the ABC reported in 2017, “There are currently more than one million drivers in Australia over the age of 75 and that number is set to skyrocket in the coming years. The latest national statistics show older drivers are involved in one-fifth of all deadly crashes, and that proportion is increasing.”
New South Wales has the toughest mandatory restrictions on elderly drivers. When reaching 75 they are required to have a medical assessment every year to keep their licence.
At 85 they must have a yearly medical assessment and pass an on-road driving assessment every two years.
There is no such test in Victoria. In recent years, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia have all scrapped or reduced testing requirements for older drivers.
In Victoria, you’re allowed to drive up to any age, on the condition that you’re medically safe to drive. There is an obligation on motorists when told by medical practitioners not to drive to notify VicRoads. Medical practitioners also have an obligation to report drivers who continue to drive against advice.
However as one doctor recently told me: “The current system puts the onus on GPs to detect eye issues, which is wrong because we don’t have the equipment. The current system only checks central vision, not peripheral. We also aren’t cops!”
You are not required to pass a licence test when you reach a certain age, but as you get older it is a driver’s responsibility to selfassess.
This is not good enough.
The 2003 Victorian parliamentary inquiry into road safety of older road users concluded self-reporting by drivers was “largely ineffective despite the legal requirements in place”.
Drivers are often unable to judge their own level of impairment and have a vested interest in retaining their licence for mobility, independence, employment factors and social interaction. This failing potentially affects all road users, especially cyclists.
The coroner’s inquest into the death of the cyclist Scott Peoples in 2006, concluded that had the impairment of the driver — loss of peripheral vision due to a stroke three years earlier — been known to the authorities, he would have been prohibited from driving”.
“The greater good is best served by protecting the public from such drivers, and not by permitting such drivers to continue to drive, protected by the cloak of confidentiality,” it was noted.
There are enough dangers on our roads. Allowing drivers who are not medically fit, with impaired vision, to drive without being detected until it is too late is simply wrong.
A regular, mandatory optometrist and doctor check-up for all drivers, at least aged 75, is a simple solution. If the driver is no longer passed fit to drive, then they should not be on our roads driving a “lethal weapon”. Passing such tests will be reassuring for the drivers and everyone else. These check-ups are already free of charge. It is time to change the law in Victoria. This state government has a record of acting on behalf of cyclists in changing laws, such as “Rory’s Law”. I ask them to consider this change as well.
This will reduce road trauma and lives lost. Not just for cyclists, nor for the drivers themselves, but for all road users.
DRIVERS ARE OFTEN UNABLE TO JUDGE THEIR OWN LEVEL OF IMPAIRMENT AND HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN RETAINING THEIR LICENCE FOR MOBILITY, INDEPENDENCE, EMPLOYMENT FACTORS AND SOCIAL INTERACTION.”