Motoring organisations and charities have expressed concern that a test for dementia in drivers over 75 recently introduced in Japan could put older motorists off driving if introduced in the UK.
The ‘senility’ test recently introduced in Japan was brought in following a series of deaths caused by elderly drivers in the country. The test will see drivers undergo a 30-minute cognitive assessment to check for signs of dementia.
This has led motoring groups in Britain to speculate that similar tests may be brought to this country in the future. But policy and research director for IAM RoadSmart, Neil Greig, said that such measures in the UK “could put older people off driving when they could still be safe”.
Greig added: “We believe there is no set age at which all older drivers become a higher risk, although those over 85 do tend to have more blameworthy crashes.
“For the general population we support raising the age of licence renewal to 75 but they must provide the results of an eyesight check. Such checks are free and widely available.”
Greig did also say though that the new test in Japan suggests that more options are worth exploring in regards to testing the condition of drivers caught breaking the law or observed having problems.
The external affairs manager for the elderly people charity Age UK, Mervyn Kohler, expressed similar views to IAM, saying: “We don’t believe that introducing dementia checks for elderly drivers is the answer to improving road safety longer term.
“Past findings have shown that the cause of many accidents on UK roads involving older people can be attributed to problems with their eyes so introducing mandatory eye tests for drivers aged 75 and over would be a far more beneficial way of tackling this issue.”