Elderly drivers may get short leash

By MATHEW DEARNALEY


Elderly drivers may be offered a softer relicensing test, but this will come too late for 80-year-old Les Tucker and his invalid wife, Betty.

Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven is considering a conditional licence for drivers aged 80 and over, offering a "slightly easier" test for those willing to stay within a certain distance of home.

This is likely to be introduced next year ahead of a wider review the minister announced yesterday of the licensing regime for those over 80.

They have since 1999 had to sit a full road test every two years, and be declared medically fit to drive, but the review follows concern about statistics officials used to justify the regime.

There are about 43,200 drivers aged 80 or over among the country's 2.6 million licence-holders, including two 101-year-old women.

But Mr Tucker has already sold his car, after failing what he said was an exhausting test in which he had to drive for an hour and 20 minutes.

"It was not so much a driving test as an endurance test," he said from his Lower Hutt home.

He had not had a crash in 65 years of driving, but was now unable to drive his 77-year-old wife even just a few minutes down the road.

Mr Tucker said the examiner, who was with an occupational therapist, boasted of failing even his own 83-year-old father for being "too old".

Audrey Baguley of Papakura passed her latest test in February, aged 82, despite finding the examiner "a bit picky" and said she would not fancy any distance restriction.

But June Grant of Devonport, also 82, said she had found her test very stressful as she had to drive through busy roads in a distant suburb and believed a closer-to-home option would serve most of her needs.

Although officials have proposed a roaming range of 10km for a conditional licence, Mr Duynhoven said elderly rural drivers may be allowed to travel further.

The option would not be compulsory, but may appeal to those who failed or lacked confidence to sit a full road test.

"We realise that for many older people the ability to drive is the key to continued independence - losing their licence can have a profound impact on their lives," Mr Duynhoven said.

"At the same time, we have to balance maintaining mobility for older drivers with the need to provide for the safety of all road users."

The Human Rights Commission said yesterday it had received about 150 complaints, mostly from Grey Power members, about the existing system but would see what the review came up with before deciding how these should proceed.

Grey Power president Graham Stairmond, who has joined a ministry-led consultative committee steering the review, welcomed yesterday's announcement as a move in the right direction.

The review follows a partial endorsement of Grey Power's concerns about research commissioned by the ministry.

Capital Research director Charles Sullivan said it had good reason to dispute crash risk conclusions on which the Land Transport Safety Authority relied in recommending the existing system.

The authority has defended the two-yearly road test in a letter to the Human Rights Commission, citing a "dramatically increased" safety risk for those aged 80 and over.

It said they had the second-highest fatal crash risk of any group, after those aged 15 to 19, on the basis of kilometres driven and the same pattern of risk per licence holder.

But Dr Sullivan said in his research report that this seemed questionable as the older group clocked up far less distance and had only the fourth-highest crash risk on a per-driver basis.

Driving on

* There are about 43,200 drivers aged 80 or over among the country's 2.6 million licence-holders.

* The death rate in 2001-02 was just over two for every 10,000 drivers in the 80-plus age group.

* The rate was more than seven in 10,000 for those aged 15 to 19, and more than four in 10,000 for those in their 20s.