April 15, 2008

The fact that 93-year-old driver Jack Higgs, managed to write his own car off, and cause a staggering £60,000 worth of damage to two Porsches, isn't the most remarkable part of his story. The most remarkable part is the fact that he still held a UK driving license at 93.

The former Pentecostal minister, who lives next door to the showroom, has now decided to quit driving.  But given his explanation of "I just don't know what happened except that I lost control as I was reversing and suddenly I had hit the cars", he shouldn't have been behind the wheel anyway.  I don't know how fast you have to be reversing to drive up a car and then roll onto another, but I'm just glad there were no pedestrians walking through the car park while he was trying to drive through it.

Jack Higgs walked away from the incident, even offering to sweep up the broken glass.  And the Porsche garage have shown great humanity showing no concern for their cars (which are covered by his insurance), only looking out for Jack, who is well known to them.  But this incident must surely raise the question of what he was doing still driving a car. 

Under UK law your current driving license will expire on your 70th birthday.  In order to renew your license all you need to do is re-apply, yes you've read that correctly, re-apply.  You don't need to take any form of re-test, although you do have to meet the minimum eyesight requirement and have proof of where you have lived for the last three years.  There isn't even anything on the DVLA website that mentions being able bodied!

Surely in these days when you are not allowed to use a phone at the wheel, and there are nutters campaigning for it to be made illegal to smoke while driving, it is time to have a debate about when to make people re-qualify for their license.  I'm not suggesting that all drivers over 70 should have their licenses taken away, merely that their driving ability should be tested before their license is renewed.

In fact I don't think it should necessarily stop there.  Why not make a re-test compulsary after ten or fifteen years?  The tests don't need to be the same as the test that you took to get your driving license the first time, but would be a good way to remove bad drivers from the system, or at least bring them up to speed. 

What do you think?  Should we face a re-test every ten years to make sure that our driving is up to scratch and if you had to take one do you think you would pass?

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