Traffic injury prevention
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Traffic injury prevention · Aug 2008
ReviewUsefulness of off-road screening tests to licensing authorities when assessing older driver fitness to drive.
There is a growing interest in quick and convenient, off-road tests of fitness to drive to assist licensing authorities in identifying the minority of older drivers at heightened crash risk. Two screening tests have been identified and assessed for their usefulness in a licensing context. ⋯ At this time, no off-road screening test of fitness to drive currently can be justified if applied on a simple pass/fail basis to all drivers reaching a threshold age, as the sole determinant of licensing status.
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Traffic injury prevention · Aug 2008
Review Comparative StudyThe licensing of older drivers in Europe--a case study.
European countries practice a wide range of car driving license renewal procedures. These range from issuing lifelong licenses without subsequent medical checks, to issuing a license to age 70 and for 3- or 5-year periods thereafter based on self-declarations of medical fitness, to requiring medical examinations for renewal, to renewal every 5 years from the age of 45. This paper presents a case study of the different older driver licensing procedures in seven European countries and addresses the association between these procedures and older driver safety. ⋯ There is also evidence that stringent renewal procedures and demanding medical examinations at renewal reduce the level of car driving licenses among older people. France, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have the highest level of driving license holding by people aged 65+, which has direct implications for the independent mobility of older people. Reduced mobility also has safety implications: in about half the European countries for which road accident fatality data have been analyzed, people aged 65+ are at greater risk of death as a pedestrian than as a car driver.