Claretmac:
Simple but controversial solution to all this!!!
Raise the minimum driving age!!!
However I have seen plenty of erm…“older” drivers out there that are the other end of the scale, driving around barely out of 1st gear, IMO they are equally dangerous as the “boy/girl racers”.
Again, simple solution, withdraw driving licences at 70 and get the bus!!
It isn’t an age thing so much as the combination of attitude to driving in the case of younger drivers and potential medical issues with older ones.It is just as likely that a young driver with the right attitude might be taken out by an old driver with medical issues as vice versa.Whereas a young driver with the right attitude combined with strict medical conditions on older ones then everyone is likely to be fine as fine gets.Obviously the former is all about driver training and the latter doctors advising and testing their older patients to make sure they are fit enough to be able to drive properly.Which just leaves the total idiots who unfortunately are out there at all ages.
Was it Clarkson who said,“It isn’t the speed that kills, it’s the sudden stop that does it!”.
One of the biggest problems is that modern small cars are fast.
When I passed my test I had a mk3 1.6 cortina, 0-60 in about 2 days and a top speed of about 80mph.
war1974:
I must admit I think once you hit 70 you should be each year be made to take an hour with an ADI to check you are not a liability on the road.
Reached 72 this year, took the ‘elderly drivers assessment’, then took and passed the IAM test (examined by ex-traffic cop).
I must admit the way I drove in my teens and twenties wasn’t the best and most responsible, I learnt from minor bumps the limits of roadholding and braking (especially the hazard of black ice) but fortunately never any injuries to anyone.
Training is fine, but its hard to beat experience.
Experience is all good and well. However,there are a lot of elderly drivers who are not as aware of their surroundings as they once were. Reaction times are slower. They also forget all about indicators. They also seem to think that every road is a 30 limit,but still only do 25 anyway which causes immense frustration amongst those behind.
I think 70 is a sensible age to be required a ‘test’ every few years thereafter. I am 42 and would be more than happy to be tested at 70. If I didn’t pass the test,im not safe enough for the road. Simples.
When I learned to drive I was taught not only to pass a test but how to read the road.
My old fella would take me out into the sticks down lanes and roads I had never seen.
So I learned how to drive down single track lanes. Main roads like the a65 from kirkby lonsdale towards jnc 36.
Suppose this helped me learn about reading corners. Judging speed etc.
My neighbour has just watched his daughter pass and asked if I would take her out for a drive to just see how good she is.
All I can say is she scared me witless. Now clue about country driving. She flew into corners with no clue how tight they might be.
On telling him this all he could ask me was can you teach her how to drive safely.
Maybe the instructors need to teach the young un’s how to drive. Not just how to pass a test…
Rip all the poor victims of the roads this weekend.
I can’t remember the exact details, but I was reading an article about teaching young drivers in Austria. They’ve managed to dramatically reduce the death rate of young inexperienced drivers, I think by a combination of teaching handling skills and road safety lectures.
Its so easy though to get carried away. Loud music and a car full of people turn even a sensible driver into a nutter.
Not long after I passed my test I was overtaking a bus coming out of Lincoln going South at 5am. Popped out from behind it and floored it as a corner was coming up, a blind corner. Next thing I know my mirrors are full of light as the bus driver is holding on to his high beams, being blinded by this buses headlights I fail to see the approaching lights of a car coming round that bend. I luckly managed to dive back into my lane but I got a long blast of the horn from this car. Scared me zb’less! I will never try anything stupid like that again.
war1974:
I must admit I think once you hit 70 you should be each year be made to take an hour with an ADI to check you are not a liability on the road.
As as 72 year-old, I agree with you!
welshmatt:
it was my next door neighbour 
feel for the family i do, couldn’t imagine what they’re going through. The roads around the Brecon are notoriously bad and often see crashes, sadly this one was fatal.
I also live in Mid Wales, and its a terrible tragedy. My condolences to the families.
Dave.
Buckstones:
war1974:
I must admit I think once you hit 70 you should be each year be made to take an hour with an ADI to check you are not a liability on the road.
Reached 72 this year, took the ‘elderly drivers assessment’, then took and passed the IAM test (examined by ex-traffic cop).
I must admit the way I drove in my teens and twenties wasn’t the best and most responsible, I learnt from minor bumps the limits of roadholding and braking (especially the hazard of black ice) but fortunately never any injuries to anyone.
Training is fine, but its hard to beat experience.
I agree but also reaction times slow, the brain doesn’t always function like it did when we were 30 but I have seen oldies indicate left and turn right. I think that at a mere 40 years old the changes in cars from when I was 17 are immense so cant imagine what its like to some oldies on the roads. like I say just a quick yearly hour to say yep old fred is ok and safe is the way forwards.
war1974:
I think that at a mere 40 years old the changes in cars from when I was 17 are immense so cant imagine what its like to some oldies on the roads. like I say just a quick yearly hour to say yep old fred is ok and safe is the way forwards.
Ironically I’d say that average speeds everywhere were much higher in the 1970’s at least with widespread general disregard for speed limits.The result being sharper more quick witted drivers right across the age range with less tolerance of mistakes.Therefore I think that many older drivers on the road today are/were actually used to a higher speed and ‘potentially’ higher risk environment than is the case today.Also some of those older type cars were not as slow as you might think and certainly not in the case of the typical 1960’s/70’s Jag for example combined with that more relaxed speed regime and attitudes to speed in the day.
The difference now being that over regulation has dumbed down driving standards all round and more people are driving,often much,smaller lighter less crash worthy cars on the basis that there is really no substitute for bigger heavier with more metal.Together with the perfect storm of young inexperienced drivers having been taught to pass the test with as minimum expensive driver instruction as possible.Often driving small light cars with relatively high power to weight ratios with often inevitable results. 
Carryfast:
people are driving,often much,smaller lighter less crash worthy cars(
Really? I rather think that official crash test findings would disagree with your statement.
Granted I’d rather crash in a modern day Range Rover than a modern day Corsa for example, but by the same measure I’d much rather crash in a modern day Corsa than one of your beloved 1960’s Jags.
The accepted wisdom is that car (and passenger) safety has increased exponentially over the years. (I say accepted wisdom, but I very much doubt that your wisdom will accept that) 
i would say that I disagree am afraid, yes there may not have been any or as many cameras etc. but for example my old capri was about flat out at 110 down hill with wind behind it (1.6s). I can get a corsa to this easier.
the only difference is cars were made to be driven not electronically controlled like some of the modern examples, and trust me once you have spun several times in a capri you quickly learn how to drive straighter and less jerky.
still say cars are far faster now than any old jag from the 70’s even with engines half the size.
I wasn’t really on about the speed aspect tbh War, I was more talking about the “survivability” of an occupant of a modern day vehicle versus an older vehicle in the event of a catastrophic crash.
but surely with crumple zones airbags etc. modern cars must be safer even if they get written off more easily?
Modern cars are lot safer than older ones…more difficult to crash and protect their occupants better when they do.
That’s why, in spite of all the platitudes pedalled by the likes of BRAKE (who were at it again on Radio 4 today), today’s roads are both very busy and very safe.
In this country, you are more likely to die in an accident in hospital than you are on the road. And UK roads are the busiest in Europe and only Sweden’s (which are empty by British standards and used mostly by Volvos) are safer.
And cars in the 1970s were slow…the average rep drove about in a 4-speed 1.6 Cortina which was comfortable at 65-70 mph on the motorway. When the Vauxhall Cavalier came out with the 5-speed box, everyone started doing 75 - 80 mph.
I will be telling my son to take it to the track if you want to go fast. Wish i did when i was young. Although there is a big difference in the Ford Orion i had then which had 74bhp to the Evo i drive now with 400bhp 
war1974:
but for example my old capri was about flat out at 110 down hill with wind behind it (1.6s).
still say cars are far faster now than any old jag from the 70’s even with engines half the size.
Firstly it was nothing unusual for young drivers to be driving a 3 litre Capri in the day which is what most people were looking for.Some also had V8’s of various types put into them like many other types of old school Fords.None of which exactly hang about in an environment of speed enforcement carried out by marked police cars and bikes and as I said widespread contempt of speed limits.
As for 1970’s Jags.It’s going to take something with less than 3.0 litres that can go ‘far faster’ than 150 mph.Or more like ‘far faster’ than 165 mph assuming a few choice relatively cheap mods especially a 6.0 litre engine conversion.In which case that’s going to be a tall order without something very expensive and very special.
youtube.com/watch?v=7TMgIkx40tI