[The Great]

Many a times I have seen that the drivers in Mumbai are really aged guys. Although nothing wrong with that but they simply do not follow the traffic rules properly.

I have seen the RTO cops letting them go away with minor signal jumps or lane cuttings but that is very dangerous at times.

Being into Insurance field I have come across a number of accidents involving negligence from the driver who are simply not fit to drive.

The other day I was in a cab and the driver was literally driving a FIAT car with an extremely off-balance chassis and I could feel the brakes were also working only about 5%. In the small 4 kms ride we had almost 2 close shaves. On inquiring about his health he proudly tells me he has vertigo condition occurrences sometimes.

Even my own uncle who is 57 cannot drive the car properly. Back in the day he was a great driver and most of my driving skills were sharpened by him. But now he cannot drive the car as he used to and we don't allow him a car. His left leg does not come off the clutch properly thereby almost propelling the car ahead like a rocket at times. He cannot drive the automatic ones either.

The point I am trying to make is that what if they had a re-test of certain aged drivers at the time of renewal of license, just like they give licenses to new drivers. I inquired at the RTO and one of my colleague RTO officer told me that the rule wasn't there in place. At the time of renewal though these licenses are being renewed aptly without the tests done.

Posting my thread from Here

[saket77]

Certainly in favour of re-testing aged drivers. Doesn't matter if the tests are not done in compliance to books, but I am hopeful that things like these will only improve with times.

Reflexes do slow down with age and so does vision. I would myself like to get tested regularly once I attain that age so that I know I am fit for driving. It will be so much better than landing myself and my family in trouble. I would like to call it a day when I would know that I am not fit for the task.

Regards,
Saket.

[Jeroen]

In my home country the Netherlands you need to take a compulsory medical test every five years once you are over the age of 75.

The debate about the elderly having to take driving test flared up this weekend here as well. An elderly gentlemen drive up the motorway the wrong way. Drove into a car killed himself, the other driver and one child, the other children are still in critical condition.

Every year about 3/5 people die because of somebody going the wrong way on the motorway. Nearly always they are elderly persons and somehow got confused. Believe me you have to be pretty confused to even to manage to get onto the wrong way of a motorway in the Netherlands

Having said that, according to the insurance companies the elderly have the fewest accidents by far. It's actually the young people during their first 5-7 years of having their driving licences that cause major mayhem on the roads!

Jeroen