The family of a young man killed by an elderly driver is calling for political courage to restrict older drivers before more lives are lost.
Sue Jenkins' 22-year-old son, Dann, was killed while riding a motorbike in northern NSW in October last year.
First off let me remind everyone that this was in NSW, and we already have BOTH regular medial testing and driving testing for elderly drivers, and they must do these things to retain their license here!
ColinOldnCranky wrote:It's an age old theme. And I have certainly noticed a recent spike in media reports of people crashing into houses where the driver is old.
But I don't see any attempt to explain why the reports are more common now than they were. Likely it is just a current theme of the media. In this case the less than lazy ABC at least has come up with some substance behind the call.
But I seldom see any numbers in the media treatment. And probably not by the unfortunate family here either. ANd while I am not ATM going to chase these numbers myself I'm sure that others will.
On the other hand I note that driver who killed a cyclist from behind bein greported on this morning was 20yo. And I'm pretty sure that is the driver who incomprehensibly and blindly drove straight over the cyclist in Safety bay Road recently was aged the media woudl have reported so. (
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/dashc ... 037nn.html
Yes, to over emphasize the elderly driver connection here is to totally miss the point. And that point would be that this is in no way a problem that is exclusively one of elderly drivers, it's much more widespread than that. Yes I totally agree that elderly drivers are way over-represented in pedal confusion incidents, and I suspect that is the primary reason that the media spotlight has been on them more than ever lately (and indeed that particular issue has become more common over time due to the ever increasing usage of automatic transmission cars these day.)
However the above is is separate issue. On the issue at hand, I have not noticed any significant over-representation of elderly drivers in killing cyclists. Indeed, as with Colin, most of the recent incidents that come to mind have not involved elderly drivers, perhaps they are even under represented here. Let's look at some recent incidents involving cyclists where the driver turned directly across their path causing serious injury or death.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mohamed-fagee ... zlw5k.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-25/c ... ne/8841322
Both relatively young drivers.
For me the real story here (and so far everyone else has missed it) is that this time it happened to a road user who wasn't a pedal cyclist, so this time it's actually a serious issue. Notice the difference, no jail time in any of the above cyclist related incidents, but 9 months jail for this driver because he killed someone who wasn't a pedal cyclist. Sure he didn't end up having to serve the time because of his age, but the sentence is still relevant in my opinion. Look at the difference in attitudes to this incident compared to previous similar incidents involving cyclist. Why is nobody saying, "
yeah he had a helmet and wasn't speeding, but should he really have been out on his motorbike at that time? " "
That motorist probably just had the sun in his eyes, and now he has to (pretend) to live with the guilt of what happened". You know the story, a strong subtext in the reporting that the cyclist was really to blame, and the motorist almost a victim! But not this time - weird or what.