65-year-old woman driver arrested after her car hits 4 children in Saitama

 seems like we see a lot of news of oldies doing harm by driving.

65 is not old! It's the new 40 in Japan.

the woman was quoted by police as saying the sun got in her eyes and she couldn’t see the traffic lights.

This is quite likely although, it's not really an excuse. If she didn't see the traffic light, she should have at least seen the children.

seems like we see a lot of news of oldies doing harm by driving

There seems to be an agenda to stop older people driving, by fair means or foul.

But 65 is not old.

@yokohamarides - Car occupant fatalities are down but pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are up. Together, they account for 69% of the total traffic deaths(from 53% in 2015).

Yes, that's right, but only a very small percentage of them involve elderly drivers. Elderly drivers (over 65) are responsible for 7% of Japan's road fatalities. However, drivers under 30 are responsible for over 60% of Japan's road fatalities. It seems all these calls for better cognitive testing are focussed on the wrong demographic of drivers.

Even thought accident stats are way down recently, seems like we see a lot of news of oldies doing harm by driving.

Car occupant fatalities are down but pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are up. Together, they account for 69% of the total traffic deaths(from 53% in 2015).

Sun in your eyes and can't see a signal? Common sense suggests slow down. But if you can't even notice 4 people on a pedestrian crossing you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a car.

Car occupant fatalities are down but pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are up. Together, they account for 69% of the total traffic deaths(from 53% in 2015).

It has always bothered me that all deaths and injuries involving a car, whether the injured or dead person is driving the car, a paassenger in the car, or a pedestrian or cyclist struck by the car, are lumped together, because it's the car that causes the deaths. It is almost impossible for two pedestrians of cyclists to cause any deaths by colliding into each other -- and entirely impossible for an automobile driver to be killed by a non-car running into them.

Non-drivers are kiled by drivers all the time. Yet drivers are never killed by non-drivers. And as a non-driver it's virtually impossible to isolate yourself completely from cars, so you're always in danger. We need to start talking about the number of non-drivers, such as these elemenjtary school girls, who are injured by drivers, independently from anything involving car-occupant injuries.

zurcronium - Another old unfit driver nearly runs over four kids. When will this old age carnage stop. 65 is ancient. No one that advanced age should drive at all.

So, does this mean you will stop driving when you are 60? Before you become ancient? That's if you are even old enough to drive now. My guess is, by the time you are 60 people will have flying cars.

Great that none of the kids were badly hurt.

Lets hope their families sue this unfit driver for everything she's worth

Sixty five is not old. As others have pointed out only a small percentage of RTAs are caused by elderly drivers.

There is an awful lot of demonising going on from the media and many commentators.

65 is not old. I get it to some posters who appear to be in their 20's or younger they think it is old, but it really is not.

As other's above pointed out, under 30's are far more dangerous behind the wheel in terms of fatalities etc. Every time a 30 year old or younger driver gets in an accident, we don't see a hue and cry to ban them from driving

Some of you folks seriously have an ageism problem

Ban cars not drivers.

Actually, don’t ban anything. Just make sure people have other safe transport options so they don’t have to drive if they don’t want to.

Encourage public transportation and cycling by making it safer and more convenient.

I once pulled up in front of my in-laws' house in a rather cramped neighborhood. The wife and kids were in the house and I was removing the child seat from the back of the car. Suddenly the 60-some year old housewife who lived next door pulled up right behind me. I raised a finger (no, not the middle one) to indicate that I would be just a moment as I already had the child's seat in my hands out of the car. What did she do? She floored it and flew between the tight space between my car and the in-laws' house right in front of the house door. Frankly, I didn't think there was enough room for her to squeeze through because it was so narrow. As I looked at her with a shocked look on my face holding the child's seat in my hands, she just looked back at me with a pompous look of triumph on her stupid face. At that moment, I was more shocked than angry. I just couldn't believe that somebody could be so dangerously stupid.

Had one of our children come out of the house at that moment, she would have run right over them. She was my in-law's neighbor so I didn't make a scene, but I'll never forget that stupid, pompous look on her face after she did that.

Every time I read a story like this, I'm not all that surprised and I check to see if the driver was this woman I encountered. Since that time, I'm always holding on to the hands of my kids whenever I'm in an area where cars are moving about. Sidewalks too because the bicyclists are just as reckless.

ThonThaddeo: "It is almost impossible for two pedestrians of cyclists to cause any deaths by colliding into each other"

Wrong. There are incidents of cyclists killing each other quite frequently, actually. There are some 2000/year casualties involving cyclists. Laws have gotten tougher, but I suspect it is largely to sell liability insurance. Here's one example of a cyclist killing a motorcycle driver:

"Last Thursday, the Tokyo public safety commission suspended the driver’s license of a man who drunkenly cycled across a busy street at a place where there was no crossing in January and crashed into a motorcycle, killing the driver."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/29/reference/law-gets-serious-cycling-safety/#.WldpJCOB00o

In any case, for those who are saying it's age, I think you need to relax. 65 is not that old. I believe it if the woman says the sun got in her eyes, and I bet you a million dollars this is one of those myriads of streets in Japan where the "sidewalk" is a white line painted on the asphalt about 30 cm from a store front, meaning little place to walk. That said, if it was that hard to drive safely, the woman should have stopped. Sounds stupid to those who haven't had accidents, but I bet in hindsight...

65 is old , I am 68 and I feel I need a pension , I have to use a car to get to my job which involves dealing with somebody pointing at their nose when i stop and they want to cross the street

Even thought accident stats are way down recently, seems like we see a lot of news of oldies doing harm by driving.

Another old unfit driver nearly runs over four kids. When will this old age carnage stop. 65 is

ancient. No one that advanced age should drive at all. How kids are going to be run over till

Japan stops old people, and by old I mean 65, from driving over people.

Car fatalities may be down but accident by old people, over 65, is up and will increase over time

as move and more people become ancient over 65.