PENSIONER DRIVER GOES BACK TO SCHOOL

L-PLATES| they are back in use for a Lincolnshire pensioner

Pensioners drivers are often criticised for allegedly having poor reactions, declining ability, and going too slowly.

Inside Out investigates the effects of age on driving ability - by sending one pensioner back to school!

At 95 years old, Les Dixon is Lincolnshire’s oldest driver.

He defies his critics by still driving around 12 miles every day.

Les joined the Driving for Life scheme, which incorporates an hour-long driving assessment.

This was organised by the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership to reduce the growing number of veteran drivers dying on the county’s roads.

The idea of the course is to give older drivers the confidence to carry on motoring - or to be able to judge whether it’s time to stop.

Triumph

Today, drivers need to pass the test to get behind the wheel

Astonishingly, this was Les’s first driving assessment.

The driving test didn’t exist when he began a lifetime behind the wheel nearly 80 years ago in a Model T Ford!

Miniature cameras followed Les’s drive with instructor Peter Hennell.

Les's driving was assessed as safe but he was caught by the cameras:

• Speeding in a 30mph limit
• Veering across the road towards oncoming traffic while trying to switch on his headlights
• Being ticked off for being too courteous in allowing another car to turn ahead of him when he had the right of way.

Police opinion

In some areas, as many as one in four motorists is a pensioner.

Lincolnshire has one of Britain’s highest rates of road death. 93 people died last year, with drivers over 65 making up 15 per cent of fatalities.

A senior Lincolnshire police officer tells Inside Out older drivers should considering hanging up their keys if they’re having trouble keeping up with the pace of life on today’s roads.

Dr Andrew Rixon, says "Older drivers have fewer accidents."

"But they are four times more likely to die than a younger driver in an accident of the same severity."

Dr Rixon says younger drivers tend to use their reactions to get out of dangerous situations while older motorists use their experience to avoid it in the first place.

Head to head

Inside Out asked ex-formula one driver Trevor Taylor - aged 67 - to take part in a scientific head to head test with a current racing driver, Champ Car star Darren Manning.

Darren Manning's reactions were twice as fast as Trevor Taylor's

This was designed to test if the reactions of older drivers really are slower than younger drivers.

In an experiment in the psychology lab at the University of Lincoln, Trevor - took twice as long to react to an event than his 27 year old rival.

Trevor, from Sheffield, says, "You think you’re still young and still fast but you are not."

So despite Les being classified as ‘safe’, others pensioner drivers should not dismiss joining the course.