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@bankhaunter wrote:

 some oap.s havent sat a test for the best part of 45 years, and boy look how the roads have changed

 

And they will have been driving throughout the changes and adapting with them, it means nothing.

 

The statistics on accidents by age do not take the number of drivers of those ages into consideration, going by numbers alone, the 40 - 59 age group have most accidents.

 

70 isn't a magic age at which possible inability to drive suddenly rears it's head, if there is going to be a system for determining if a person is fit to drive, it should start younger than that.

 

My father died at the wheel aged 59.

 

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Ideally re-testing should take place for all ages but economics make this prohibitive.

Agreed that 70 is arbitrary age but there again so would 75, 55 or 80.  There is clear scientific evidence that both mental and physical abilities diminish as we get older, both of which have an impact on our ability to drive so age is a reasonable criteria to use for retesting and 70 is as good an age as any to introduce the requirement for retests.

Of course other ages may well be a greater risk on the road and you may well consider that economically they should be the priority - that doesn't make the argument that a retest should be introduced based on age any less valid.

I'm not sure that retesting for younger and inexperienced drivers is the way to make that group any safer on the road, other than perhaps as a penalty/deterrent.  Far better in my opinion to make their first test more stringent and to impose restrictions in respect of vehicles/speed/passengers etc. for the first few years after gaining a licence.