Earlier this year, the government announced the biggest overhaul in road safety strategy in more than a decade with ambitions to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Britain’s roads by 65% within a decade.

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Debates about road safety often quickly turn to older drivers. And so it has in these proposals, with the government consulting on a proposal for mandatory eye tests for older drivers from the age of 70 as part of the licence renewal process.

So is such a move justified? Well, yes and no.  There are three key things to balance when considering this proposal. The strength of the arguments around age and road safety, the very real vulnerability of older road users, and the potential impact of an increased number of older people giving up driving.

Many of the statistics on older people and road safety are taken as evidence of an increased risk posed by older drivers. But all these stats are really telling us is who is being killed or injured.   For example, in support of the move, the government highlighted figures which showed that about 24% of all car drivers killed in 2024 were 70 or older, and 12% of all casualties in car collisions involved older drivers. 

But that only tells us about the vulnerability of older drivers and passengers in an accident. It doesn’t tell us much about the contributory........

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