Quintin Jardine's blog

I’ve just read a story my morning newspaper of a proposal (the story didn’t make clear who was its author) that drivers should give up their licences at 70, or at the least that there should be compulsory re-testing on age grounds.

I’d find the former suggestion risible if it wasn’t downright offensive, but I can’t argue against the latter. In North Berwick yesterday morning I saw two young drivers, their cars within the safe braking distance, drive over the top of a mini roundabout, as they made a right turn. Reckless, but not untypical. Yes, there should be compulsory re-testing, just as there is for vehicles. After all, almost invariably it’s the driver who kills, not  the car. But which drivers? On a US trip a few years ago, I was struck by the fact that the Monday morning news bulletins were headed by round-ups of weekend road fatalities, state-wide. Almost all the dead drivers were said tio have been twenty-one or under. I would love to see an analysis in the UK of the average age of drivers found to be culpable in serious and fatal road accidents; I’ll bet that it would be lower than 35.

So here’s my proposal. Drivers aged under twenty-one should be re-tested one year after gaining a full licence, and every three years thereafter, until they reach the age of twenty-five. Twenty-five to forty-five, we should be re-tested every five years, forty-five to seventy-five every ten, and every three years thereafter. Drivers over seventy-five should also require medical certification by a doctor other than their own GP.

You want to keep death off the roads? Start at the lover end of the age scale, and work up.