Will You Still Have Your Licence at 106 Years Old?
Came across some information regarding driving licences in the UK. The information comes from figures released by the DVLA under the freedom of information act.
I guess the headline figure is that there are now over one million drivers that are 80 years old or older! That figure gets even more surprising when you learn that there are 122 people over 100 years old that still have licences and three of them are 105 years old, whilst the oldest licence holder is a 106 year old woman.
There are almost 37 million of us in the UK holding some kind of driving licence, so I suppose every age group is bound to be covered, but what it means is that the gap between the youngest and oldest licence holder is 90 years and that’s a pretty big gap.
Should you be worried? well stats show that the over 80’s are three times less likely to be involved in crashes than drivers in the 17-19 age group. Clearly youngsters don’t have the experience older drivers do, but they are bright and alert and one would guess, have better reaction times than older folk, but never the less in real terms, in 2010, the figures showed that almost one (0.98) out of every 1,000 licence holders aged 17-19 died or were seriously injured in that year, compared to 0.33 for the over 80’s. The average across all age groups was 0.18, with the 60-69 year olds having the lowest figure at 0.09 (deaths per 1,000 licence holders).
We live in a much more mobile world now and we all need to get around, but for older people being able to have their own car is hugely important, allowing them to play a full and active role in society whilst it don’t half make going to Tesco’s easier! So good on em’ as they say.
With people living longer and figures showing that’s increasing dramatically, it’s predicted there will be 8.7 million people over the age of 75yrs by 2033, and that is going to mean that statistically our roads are going to be a safer place to be? So Can’t Be Bad!
