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Yes

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I guess this debate is one that many people will feel strongly about, especially older drivers in the US. However I feel that there should be a maximum age limit for driving in all countries, not just the US. Much as there is a minimum age limit for drivin,g due to reasons of safety, I feel that the same should apply with older citizens.

I have come across a fair few older drivers in my time and can think of many who were prime examples of why there should be a maximum age for driving. Working at a Doctor's surgery, a few years ago, I used to chat regularly with an elderly patient. In fact he was a very old patient. He wore a sunshade over his eyes, as he could hardly see, and could not see at all when the sun shone. He was deaf, moved very slowly and was quite frail and moved slowly. Imagine my horror when I realised that he drove the short journey from his home to the surgery. Madness. Now in such cases the driver selfishly puts other peoples lives at risk, as well as their own. With less sharp eye sight and slower reflexes an accident is highly probable. The man in question could just have easily have caught the bus and used his free pensioner bus travel pass instead of using his car.

Of course there are many issues why drivers are reluctant to give up their cars. The less mobile person would perhaps find it hard to walk to a bus stop but can get to their garage and into their car. There is the question of having independence, freedom of movement and still feeling a part of society. However the fact that a person is no longer driving should not cause such problems.

I feel that the sensible way forward is to have yearly tests for drivers over perhaps the age of seventy or sixty-five, to make sure that they are still fit to drive. Thinking back to my earlier example of the old guy, he would have first passed his driving test when the roads were fairly traffic free, the speeds were much slower and there were, in general, fewer idiots on the road. His skills, and much more, needed to be assessed now he was getting old for everyone's sake, not least his.

Setting a maximum age for driving may seem difficult to enforce and unfair but realistically I do not think it is. After all, capable youngsters have to wait until they reach the appropriate age to drive, don't they? There is so much traffic, and so many dangers, on the roads these days that drivers need to be fit, alert and capable at all times. The minimum age for driving is generally accepted as sensible and I think with time a maximum age would be also. We must never forget that a car is a potentially lethal weapon, in the wrong hands. If your child was killed on the roads it would not lessen the sorrow knowing that the driver was an old person who did not mean it, would it?

Please note that I am 56 years old and so not looking at this issue through young eyes.

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