A new survey has found that a staggering 77 percent of people believe elderly drivers should face compulsory health and fitness tests. After Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke was involved in a car accident earlier this week, it was reported that the police had asked the authorities to intervene.
According to TMZ, the actor will be required to retake his driving test, as a result of his advanced age.
As a result of this, experts at Forbes Advisor have revealed that a majority of drivers think elderly drivers should face compulsory fitness tests.
Half (51 percent) of those participating in the updated survey believe that elderly drivers should be made to surrender their licence at a set age.
This would be regardless of their health and fitness, with 12 percent of people saying it should happen at some point in a person’s early 80s.
READ MORE: Phillip Schofield opens up about his elderly father giving up driving
That idea was less favourable with people in older age brackets – more than half (55 percent) of those over the age of 70 asked said no such law should be introduced
However, perhaps surprisingly, more than a third (34 percent) said it was a good idea.
Forbes Advisor found that older drivers consider themselves among the safest on the roads.
Despite this, research shows the frequency and average value of insurance claims climb among motorists when they reach their 70s.
“That seems draconian, given that there are bad drivers and good drivers at every age. But the Government will need to confront the issue at some point given the demographic factors that are slowly but surely putting more elderly drivers on the road.”
Recently, there have been calls for elderly drivers to have more sanctions placed on them. According to data from the Department for Transport, crashes increase over the age of 75, with the highest rate for any group being 86 and over.
One expert, criminal defence lawyer Paul Britton, stated that there are more collisions by elderly drivers than all other age groups put together for the top category of reasons for the crash.
This could include failing to see the road and other eyesight issues, as well as having slower reaction times.
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