Police say a car driven by a 91-year-old woman ‘came from behind’ and struck three pedestrians on the foot path, near a playground in Melbourne’s east on Thursday. A 59 year old woman, died at the scene while a man, 60, suffered life-threatening injuries alongside a two-year-old boy, who is now in a stable condition in hospital.

What seems to be another out of the blue motor vehicle accident resulting in death and injury committed by a old driver. This is not the first accident of this kind involving the elderly. Old people have driven off multistory car parks, left a straight road on a fine and sunny day, and ended up in a creek. They have crashed into peoples houses after taking a wrong turn, when is enough is enough? Just as we don't allow 11 year old's behind the wheel, for obvious safety reasons, maybe its time we bite the bullet with a new road rule for old people. You are now aged 80, happy birthday, here is a free bus ticket, DRIVING LICENCE CANCELLED!

Oh I am with you there Paul. The number of times I have witnessed elderly citizens at our local supermarket checkout struggle to find their correct card, then find the slot to insert it into and remember their pin before hobbling into the carpark, often with the aid of some walking device, trying to locate their car. It scares me.

What’s the answer? I don’t believe that a blanket restriction at age ‘x’ is the solution. However, I would suggest a compulsory driving test after the age of - say 75.

In NSW, drivers over 75 must do a compulsory medical assessment done by their doctor who can decide they are unfit to drive. But generally, if they are unsure, they send forms to the authorities who will then order a driving test. At 85 they get a bi-annual compulsory driving test. They can either retain the full licence, get a restricted licence that allows them to travel within a 10 klm radius of home, or lose the licence completely.

When my father was found to have dementia, he was slotted to take a compulsory drivers test preparatory to withdrawing his licence. But it was during the Covid hysteria and the testers from the Transport NSW weren't allowed to get in a car with the public. So no test. It was constantly postponed and never happened. In the end, I just took his car off him.

Might I point out that all the incidents Paul claims to have happened to old folk have also happened to people under 80. Age isn't the issue

Hi Aries54,

I probably agree, if you're not going to have an upper limit, absurdity, then why have a lower limit, if a kid aged 11 could pass a driving test, then why not give him a licence. I recall my elderly neighbour, who drove very infrequently, mostly short distances at a top speed of 30km or 40km. The woman had an accident is a quite street, when she drove smack bang up the arse of a parked car. Her defence was the sun was in her eyes. She did say she was not confident in driving at night, in rain, in busy streets, when it was sunny, when it was cloudy, in unfamiliar areas, in shopping centres, otherwise she was good to go. My old father-in law, driving in his 80's, pulled up at a set of traffic lights, managed to put the car into reverse, took off on the green light and smashed into the car behind. Refused to give details to the other driver, put on a donny and blamed her for being there, cops called claiming she drove into him, a witness said otherwise. The cops told the old fool they didn't believe his story, and gave him 2 fines. Another time he was backing out of a car space at the local shopping centre, he backed out, and backed out, and kept backing out until he smacked the parked car opposite, then pissed off. A witness got his rego and the coppers called around, he claimed he didn't even know he had hit another car, yet another fine.

What’s the answer?
Aries54,
In cities & towns the answer is better transport networks. In country areas age is generally not quite as much of a problem due to much less traffic & a much better driver mentality.
Road signage is a contributing factor in more accidents than there would be with less signage.
In Cairns for example, Street names are so badly positioned that drivers have to risk diverting attention from driving to finding streets. Car GPS are hardly ever up to date with the changes of streets. Poor parking arrangement is also a factor in minor accidents.
Only recently I drove the Bruce highway along the Cassowary Coast & I was amazed at the inconsiderate driving of tourists towing caravans & boats or trailers. I was on 100kmh in 100kmh zones & many of these drivers took quite some risks to get past me. They were doing 120 plus !
What mentality is that & where does it come from ? Had there been an accident the blame would have been attributed to the old driver.

In Australia, over 70% of drivers aged 80 and over continue to drive. While older drivers are not a major contributor to overall road casualty numbers, they are more likely to be at fault in crashes they are involved in. For example, drivers aged 80 and over were responsible for 79% of crashes resulting in life lost or serious injury that they were involved in.

One interesting stat is from the age of drivers 16 to 79 the number of serious accidents based on age steadily decreases as drivers get older, levels out from 60 to 79. BUT suddenly at the age of 80 the number dramatically increases from 6.4/10,000 for 70 to 79 to 10.7/10,000 for 80+. This is despite the 80+ plus group driving much less than others ages. The average driving distance per year in Australia is 12,000km, for 85+ drivers its 5,000km. Based on Km driven and the fatality and serious injury rates, a driver aged over 80 is 4 times more likely to be involved in a fatal or serious injury accident than the average driver. Alarming!