Would you report YOUR elderly relative to the police if you thought their driving could kill?
Pat’s son died in this crash – the day after the 89-year-old who caused it failed an eye test. So . . .
‘If he’d listened to police, my daughter would still be alive’ ‘All the driver got was a six-month ban and a £200 fine’
AS he walked down the garden path after their Sunday roast — a weekly family tradition he never missed — Neil Colquhoun turned around and said: ‘I love you, mum.’ They would be the last words he ever said to her. Five days later, the 28-year-old was dead — killed by an 89-year-old driving on the wrong side of the road.
Despite having failed an eye test just 24 hours earlier, retired GP Turner Waddell was still behind the wheel.
Neil’s mother Pat hasn’t cooked a roast since that day six years ago. ‘There’s always an empty chair,’ she says. ‘Instead, every Sunday I go to the crematorium. I take him some flowers. It’s all I can do for him now.’
The 66-year-old, who has three other sons, says her tight-knit family has been devastated by Neil’s death.
he was on his way home from work and overtaking a slow-moving vehicle on the A30 in hampshire when he was confronted by Waddell’s Volvo travelling the wrong way down the dual carriageway. Another driver who was also overtaking managed to squeeze back into the inside lane, but Neil had nowhere to go. The two cars collided head-on.
Drivers at the scene dragged Waddell and his wife from their vehicle, but Neil’s doors jammed and his car caught fire. his body had to be identified by DNA tests. The day before the accident, Waddell had failed a hospital eye test. he had no sight in one eye and was below the legal limit in the other. The consultant didn’t tell Waddell not to drive because he simply didn’t believe it was possible for Waddell to be driving.
Pat, from hartley Wintney in hampshire, is understandably angry. ‘Dr Waddell was so arrogant. he should not have been on the road. his family knew that, too, and they didn’t do anything about it. It’s unforgivable.
‘Neil has been robbed of his future. he’d started a new job, working in accounts, two weeks before the accident. he was so excited about it and had so many plans. he was a kind and thoughtful lad. he paid the ultimate price for another family’s complacency.’
Waddell, who lives near Bridgend, South Wales, admitted causing death by careless driving and received a ninemonth suspended sentence.
But Pat, who is retired from working in hotel hospitality and is divorced from Neil’s father Leslie, believes there should be far stricter rules for older drivers when it is time for them to renew their licence.
Currently, drivers must renew their licence just before their 70th birthday if they intend to stay behind the wheel. There is no requirement for a retest of their driving skills, an eye test or a medical unless they have declared a condition which the DVLA might require to test further.
All they have to do is tick the boxes to say they are fine to drive, renewing it in the same manner every three years.
But tragedies such as Neil Colquhoun’s death always ignite debate over whether this is enough — as do the more minor but frightening incidents that occur so often on our roads.
Just the other day, I was walking my dog when an elderly lady reversed into me. Pinned between her reversing car and my stationary one, I had to bang frantically on her rear window to make her realise I was there and get her to stop. Luckily, I wasn’t hurt — but the outcome could have been very different.
According to DVLA figures, there are 4.9 million licence-holders over the age of 70. The majority of these are between 70 and 79, but a staggering 100,000 are over 90. As we become more active in our old age, more than 60 per cent of 70-yearolds now hold a licence. Forty years ago, only 15 per cent did.
So is this growing generation of older drivers the hazard we think they are? This month, Philip Bull, 90, was spared jail after pleading guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. he received a two-year suspended sentence.
he had just dropped off his wife at Withington Community hospital in Manchester when he accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake as he reversed, hitting and killing Clare haslam, 44, and Deborah Clifton, 49.
And last week, dementia sufferer James harris, 87, was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving when he accidentally accelerated across a road and into a charity shop in Petts Wood, South-east London. he hit Mary hambrook, 67, who died from her injuries.
Despite these tragedies, though, research shows older drivers are among the safest.
Over-60s are involved in quarter of the number of crashes that those in their 20s are. But analysis of 2,000 accidents has proved that when older drivers are in a crash, they’re more likely to be partly or fully to blame.
An 80-year-old is four times more likely to have some responsibility for a crash than a younger driver, for reasons including poorer vision and slower reaction times.
The research, from the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology, also found that older drivers were more at risk at junctions and intersections and could be prone to unintended acceleration.
Such incidents are not common, but when they do happen, the consequences can be catastrophic, as Jackie McCord tragically discovered.
her daughter Cassie, 16, was killed when 87-year-old Colin horsfall mounted the pavement and hit the accelerator instead of the brake.
Three days before Cassie’s death, horsfall had missed the entrance to a petrol station in Colchester, essex, and driven into trees. The police performed a roadside eyesight test, which he failed.
‘In those days it could take around 14 days for the DVLA to revoke a licence,’ says Jackie, 57, from high Wycombe. ‘The police drove Colin home and spent two hours with him trying to persuade him to surrender his licence voluntarily. But he wouldn’t. he was adamant that his independence would not be taken away before it legally had to be.
‘If he had listened to the police, Cassie would still be alive. Instead, as Cassie was walking to sixth-form college on the Monday morning, Colin mounted the pavement.
‘he missed a pedestrian before manoeuvring back onto the road. he then hit the accelerator instead of the brake, remounted the pavement and hit Cassie into the wall. She suffered head injuries and a broken spine.’
Cassie was taken to Colchester hospital and later airlifted to Queen’s Neurological Unit in London. She was pronounced brain dead the following day. On February 9, 2011, her life support was switched off.
‘Cassie was a lovely girl. A typical teenager. We were, and still are, a close family and this is the worst thing that can happen. You don’t expect to outlive your children.’
horsfall died in a care home three months after the accident. After Cassie’s death, Jackie campaigned for a change in legislation. ‘Cassie’s Law’ came into effect in 2013.
Police are now able to take away someone’s licence almost instantly if they fail a roadside eyesight test; today, more than 1,000 licences have been revoked under this law. But while the UK has one of the more relaxed licence renewal systems in europe, it also has one of the lowest fatality rates for older drivers.
Dr Charles Musselwhite, Associate Professor in Gerontology at Swansea University, says: ‘The evidence from countries that have stricter tests — whether that is cognitive tests, medical tests or on-road driving tests — show no difference in older driver collision rates compared to countries that have more relaxed licensing.
‘ Denmark introduced age- based cognitive screening for over-70s but has since withdrawn it as they found no change in collision rate, but an increase in deaths and serious injuries in pedestrians over 70, as they got out of their cars and walked more.
‘There is a little evidence that a more stringent eyesight test makes a slight difference to collision rates, either because it enables older drivers to get their vision corrected, or because it means some older people with really bad eyesight have their licence revoked.’
Sergeant Rob heard was the senior investigating officer in Neil Colquhoun’s accident and set up the Older Drivers Forum to reduce the number of accidents among this age group.
‘Our aim is to help people to carry on driving safer for longer, but also give them advice as to when it is time to retire from driving,’ he says. ‘We encourage older people to undertake voluntary driving appraisals, have regular eyesight tests and medicals with their GP. If they do that, the risk of them being involved in an incident is vastly reduced.’
Rob is also on the Older Drivers Task Force which has made a recommendation to government to increase the age of licence renewal to 75 years, but with a compulsory eye test. They are also
recommending that eye tests should be encouraged from the age of 60.
But could it be cruel to deprive older people of their last piece of independence, especially at a time when families are dispersed and community services are shrinking?
Research shows giving up driving can increase depression and isolation, and cause people to die sooner. Mervyn Kohler, of Age UK, says: ‘It’s not just about being able to get some shopping, it’s about being able to participate in the life of the community, with friends and to visit grandchildren. Public transport is very thin on the ground in some places.’
For 90-year-old Jill Hartley, who has been driving for 55 years, her car is her lifeline. She no longer uses it for day trips because she has no one to accompany her. But she says: ‘I need it to go shopping, to the bank and the post office. My passion is gardening so I also visit garden centres. If I couldn’t drive, I’d be devastated. It takes me out of my home so I can see people.’
In June, Jill underwent an older driving assessment which found she was safe to stay on the road.
‘It was really useful and I enjoyed it,’ she adds. ‘I think all older drivers should be tested.’
It’s a sentiment shared by John Michaels, who was left so badly injured by an 83-year- old driver that doctors feared he would never walk again. He was riding his motorbike to work in August last year and travelling at 30mph on a quiet, straight road in Hatfield Heath, Essex, when Brian Leahey pulled out of his drive and into John’s path.
‘I was knocked across the road on to the grass verge on the other side,’ says John. ‘When the ambulance crew turned up and saw how badly damaged my leg was they called the air ambulance and I was flown to Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge.’
After several operations John, 44, who lives in Great Dunmow, with wife, Carman, 34, was told he might never walk again and could even lose his leg.
‘I couldn’t believe it. Fortunately, it was saved. I’ve had months of therapy and physical training and I’ve got a lot more to go. I can walk, but not very quickly and with a great deal of pain.
‘I am angry. My family have been through hell and it’s very frustrating that nothing is being done to stop it happening again.’
Leahey admitted driving without due care and attention, but John says: ‘It’s very worrying that all he got was a six-month ban and a £200 fine. I’ve had a bigger fine for being forced to stop in a box junction. I want to see anyone who causes this kind of accident to have to prove they are capable of driving.’
Some forces now send older people who have been involved in a careless driving offence or collision to have their driving assessed instead of prosecuting them, and drivers of any age can be asked to perform an eye test if an officer suspects defective eyesight.
But for those who have lost loved ones or been injured by an elderly driver, it’s still too little, too late.
For more information about safer driving in old age please see www.olderdriversforum.com and www.olderdrivers.org.uk