Mike C: Your comments on younger drivers with deficiencies

[Guest Sylvia Burman-Hunt]

Re: the over 70 re-licensing and picking up on your comment re younger people suffering eyesight and other health problems, my friend aged just 59 years has suffered from severe sight problems in one eye since birth. Last year she developed glaucoma and had a bleed in the other eye. She persisted in driving in spite of these problems and swore that she could see perfectly well. Neither her GP nor her Ophthalmologist told her that she should not be driving. She had two accidents, both fortunately minor, and finally her boss took her to her GP because she drove a tractor off a country lane and up a bank trying to avoid her! Her GP forbad her to drive because of confusion, and she has now been diagnosed with early alzheimers and is now registered partially sighted. Why didn't her Eye specialist and her GP take the responsibility of stopping her driving at least a year ago when her eyes were not up to the job??? Would her insurance have paid out? How many people could she have killed or injured? It just doesn't bear thinking about. I didn't know about the situation until last November - she has been very secretive about her problems and will not even now admit that she isn't safe to drive but that problem has been sorted by her boss retaining her car on his farm, semi-wrecked by contact with tractor, for disposal and it has a SORN declaration on it at present. I didn't have much to do with preventing her driving, so thank God for her boss who had a sense of responsibility about it. There but for the grace of God. . . . . .

[Guest Mike C]

Hello Sylvia, Your friend is a perfect example of what I was referring to and it is not just the 50's to 80's. There are a good few drivers even younger who have deficient eyesight and medical problems that make them unfit to drive. Take a look at the medical conditions that are notifiable to DVLA and how many people do you know who have one or more of these conditions and have not declared them? The other problem is the effect of certain types of medication especially the cold cures which render a driver as unfit as someone who has been drinking alcohol. Add also the people on hard drugs and it is frightening to think how many vehicles on the road could be potential causes of accidents. Many of the people who drive motor caravans are in the older age groups and have to suffer the comments about "not young or fit enough to drive such vehicles" when in fact they have had medicals to prove that they are fit. Bit of a rave but something I feel strongly about. Before someone asks, yes I do have regular medical checks including eyesight. Regards, Mike C.

[Guest pete walker]

hi both, i decided when i was forty (nine years ago now)to have regular eye tests as i used to drive all day i feel its the responsible thing to do. all the chaps at work thought that i was nuts to do so, i do need glasses to read but for driving things are fine. pete

[Guest Will Redfearn, Wirral Motorhome Club]

A lot of younger drivers, especially those wearing baseball caps seem to be deficient mentally also!