Maintaining mobility for older drivers

14 April 2010

New research shows that older drivers are the safest.

Despite the myths, the 3.7 million drivers born before World War II are amongst the safest people on our roads. RoadSafe supports the view of The RAC Foundation that forcing them to take compulsory retests will limit their mobility, be hard to police and do little to reduce accidents. This view is supported by a major piece of research by Elizabeth Box, Julie Gandolfi and Kit Mitchell published today which explores the issues surrounding keeping older drivers on the road in a safe manner

This view is supported by further research published by The IAM Motoring Trust in January which showed that drivers over 70 are no more likely to cause crashes than any other driver, and are considerably safer than younger drivers.

Public debate needs to focus on older drivers' opportunities to self-regulate, and away from stressful retesting, or licensing restrictions.

The Full report from The RAC Foundation is available here.