Half of elderly drivers in fatal accidents had cognitive impairment: NPA

That’s obvious, people usually don’t crash for no reason.

So, half of those involved in fatal accidents should not have been driving at all. Is that the fault of the drivers or of the administrators who failed to stop them driving?

My my parents are in their mid to late 79’s and both are competent drivers. In fact, they are driving down Victoria and are going to spend a week traveling around Tasmania. However, they are both very aware of their limitations. They do not drive at night and planned their journey in 2-3 hour blocks of driving. My point is, calling for all drivers over 70 to be banned is ridiculous! It must be judged on a case-by-case system and judged more regularly than yearly. Furthermore, there are many younger drivers who are a greater danger than the elderly, either through inexperience or carelessness. These younger reckless drivers are far more of a danger than elderly drivers.

And these are just the numbers of the ones involved in accidents. How many are driving around now?

As of the end of 2017, Japan had 5.4 million drivers aged 75 or older.

At the risk of being out of line, they're like time bombs waiting to go off.

Coincidentally, I had a near death experience crossing our infamous intersection. I was in the middle of the crosswalk when in the distance this car sped up toward me and swept passed me. It stopped because the traffic was halted by a train. I came up to the car and gave a friendly knock on the window. What I saw was this blank faced old guy. Utterly oblivious of what he had done. It took him a while to start up his car again.

We have strict gun control laws that prevent the horrors you see in the U.S. Japan really needs stricter driver control laws that turn the reckless and the senile into harmless pedestrians.

Now that we have heard about the elderly minority, let's hear about those that cause the great majority of accidents.

I was once hit (bumper to bumper) by a car driven by an elderly man who drove backwards, and the driver wanted to leave without any little inspection of the cars. So I left my car to have a little chat :-). Then his wife told me I should to excuse him because his sight isn't so good anymore ...

Self-driving cars to the rescue.

But wait, most of leading self driving technology is developed in the US.

Why not look at the number of hit and runs in this country, being the victim of a hit and run I can tell you, there are 100's of them a year, and if you are a gaikokujin involved in one, you can bet the police will NOT investigate. Hit and Run, make, model and plate given to police by myself and a dozen other witnesses, and the police claimed the car and driver could not be found, but they can track down a gaikokujin on a stolen push bike without any information.

I saw an old man hit an elementary school kid as he crossed the street. The old man stopped for about 4 seconds and actually had to look over the steering wheel to see what had happened. He drove one of those MASSIVE family vans. The kid limped out of the street and the old man kept driving because he couldnt see what happened. I wish I could unsee that horrible incident. I'm still traumatized by it.

My point is, calling for all drivers over 70 to be banned is ridiculous! 

So introduce an effective test, instead of the current one. You should see the oldies driving around my way, not 100% of course

What about the Stats for Fatal accidents not involving Elderly drivers ?