Driving rule change for over-70s 'should be for everyone'

A road safety and breakdown organisation has backed proposals to overhaul UK driver eyesight regulations, though it argues the changes should encompass all motorists. GEM Motoring Assist said it had long championed reforms to these regulations and has branded the suggestions for mandatory eyesight examinations as 'long overdue'.

Nevertheless, the road safety organisation maintains that all drivers should undergo testing, not merely those aged 70 or over. GEM is also calling on the government to roll out an ambitious, world-class communications strategy alongside any legislative amendments.

GEM's head of road safety James Luckhurst said: "Regular eyesight tests would help protect all road users by identifying visual impairments that could compromise safe driving. For too long we have relied on self-reporting of eyesight problems, and we welcome the prospect of this welcome shift toward proactive safety enforcement.

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"Too many people – and not just those aged 70 or over – are driving with defective eyesight that has deteriorated to a dangerous level. To reduce this risk, we want all licence holders to undergo a professional eye examination every two years as a matter of individual responsibility and public safety.

"We believe that reform to driver eyesight rules shows a commitment to making the roads safer for everyone and has nothing to do with unfairly targeting people because of their age, or seeking to restrict anyone's freedom. Mandatory eye tests are essential for everyone's safety.

"Let's also ensure that details of these updates reach road users who don't currently see road safety as relevant to them and bring the public on board to help change minds and behaviours which ultimately save lives. We need to ensure the communication mistakes made at the introduction of the Highway Code 'hierarchy of road users' in 2022 are not repeated."

The UK is also among just three European nations that depend on self-declaration of vision issues that impact driving ability, prompting ministers to weigh up mandatory sight examinations every three years for motorists over 70 and driving bans for those who don't pass. Government officials are mulling over reducing the drink-drive threshold in England and Wales and bringing in compulsory vision checks for elderly drivers, The Times reported.

The suggestions, due to be released as part of a road safety blueprint this autumn, also feature stricter punishments for driving without insurance and not buckling up. Additional recommendations are said to encompass permitting police to pursue drug-driving charges based on roadside saliva testing instead of blood analysis, as growing numbers of motorists are being nabbed with substances in their systems.

A Labour insider said: "At the end of the last Labour government, the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads was at a record low, but numbers have remained stubbornly high under successive Conservative governments. In no other circumstance would we accept 1,600 people dying, with thousands more seriously injured, costing the NHS more than £2 billion per year."

They continued: "This Labour Government will deliver the first road safety strategy in a decade, imposing tougher penalties on those breaking the law, protecting road users and restoring order to our roads."

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch expressed her backing for the plans, arguing that the concerns of families who have suffered loss due to a collision must be considered.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: "I understand the concerns of all sides. I remember a few years ago hearing from a father of a young boy whose wife was killed by a driver who had poor eyesight. And so the devastation of those families also needs to be taken into account.

"So what I'm not here to do is criticise every single thing the Government is doing. I haven't looked in full detail at these plans, but bottom line, you want drivers who are on the road to be able to see, and if they can't see, then they shouldn't be on the road."