It is unfair to treat older drivers as a liability

SIR – Older drivers have not always forgotten what they learnt before their test, as Charles Moore suggests (Comment, December 31).

When I could no longer drive due to ill health, my wife took her test and passed first time at the age of 75. She is now 82 and probably remembers more of what she learnt than many drivers half her age. Her insurance premium is low. There is a reason for the high premiums of younger drivers. Peter Stockwell

Ely, Cambridgeshire

SIR – It isn’t only elderly drivers who might be driving too slowly (report, December 29).

The other day, I was behind a young woman driving a car with “P: new driver” stuck on the boot. I would love to know how she managed to pass her test. She drove well below 30mph on a clear road, was hesitant at junctions and then stalled at a roundabout.

Even when she had restarted the engine, she didn’t move, though it was safe to do so. I dread to think what she would be like on a motorway. Susan Day

Sutton Coldfield SIR – I would suggest that the main cause of such accidents is the impatience of drivers behind those obeying the speed limit.

I had lots of aggravation from such motorists before I gave up driving in my fifties. Richard Finch

Ravenglass, Cumbria

SIR – I assume Charles Moore’s suggestion that “the deaths of a handful are quite a small price to pay for the contentment of the more than a million people over 80 who now crawl so perilously along our roads” is tongue-in-cheek.

Restricting elderly drivers’ freedom makes sense, but perhaps there needs to be a publicity campaign, similar to the ones targeting drink-driving, to explain the problem. Public pressure following such a campaign would make it easier for politicians to instigate an appropriate test for those over a certain age.

As a 70-year-old, I would have no problem with this, and if I failed the test I would accept it. Dr Russell Steele

Exeter, Devon