Widower’s retest plea heard by Commons
ACAMPAIGN by a Southport dad whose wife was killed by an elderly driver is to be heard by senior MPs.
Former Birkdale High pupil Ben Brooks-Dutton’s wife, Desreen, died just after 8pm on November 10, 2012, when a car driven by an 83-year-old man mounted the kerb in West Hampstead, North London and hit her.
Geoffrey Lederman also clipped the pushchair of Ben and Desreen’s son, Jackson, then two, when he confused the pedals of his car and hit the accelerator instead of the brake, sending his car was hurtling at 54mph in a 20mph zone. He was subsequently jailed. “My son is only alive because I pulled him out of the way from that car,” said Mr Brooks-Dutton.
The PR executive has since led a campaign calling for a change in the law, so that elderly drivers are re-tested every three years from the age of 70 onwards before they can continue driving.
His online petition has drawn huge support, with more than 245,000 signatures already. Now his plea will be debated by cross party MPs on the Transport Committee.
He spoke about the campaign on the Breakfast Show on BBC1 on Monday morning.
He said: “I think that there needs to be some kind of test to check that we are well enough to drive, that we can react in time to drive safely.
“At the moment there is a self- regulationr system that doesn’t do that.”
Mr Brooks-Dutton and Jackson have been living with the impact of an elderly driver losing control of his car, a devastating tragedy he doesn’t want any other family to have to face. And he believes the law must be changed to save lives.
He said: “No-one wants to take someone’s life, no-one wants that hanging over them. But a car is a powerful weapon.
“You need to make sure that you are capable, and that isn’t just sticking to your guns and saying ‘I am fine behind the wheel’, sometimes it is making sure that you are.”
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