While the driver who hit children this Wednesday in La Rochelle is 83 years old, this accident rekindles the debate on the lifetime license. Is it necessary to have a medical examination from a certain age?
An 83-year-old driver who veers from her lane and hits a group of children on bikes. The day after the accident in La Rochelle, which left seven people injured, including three seriously, among the participants in this leisure center outing, the question of a lifetime driving license limitation comes up again. Should a medical examination be made compulsory for the elderly?
After having an accident with an elderly person, Rémi is “for stopping his license for life”. “I was on a motorbike, an elderly person crashed into me,” says this Breton listener in The Big Mouths this Thursday on RMC and RMC Story. He hadn’t seen me. It was dismissed by the court, saying that I had to consider myself lucky to still be alive. It’s a pretty awful story for me. I was hurt physically and psychologically. My leg was stuck between my motorcycle and his car. That day, if I hadn’t been 100% equipped, I might have lost my leg, or more.”
But for Rémy Josseaume, a road law lawyer, medical examinations for elderly drivers are not the best solution. “Statistically, not all so-called senior people are over-represented in accidents,” he emphasizes in Apolline Matin. “These are not people under alcohol or narcotics. These are not people who fit into the boxes of causes of road insecurity. The French population is aging, there are certainly appropriate measures to be taken on a case-by-case basis. I do not want absolute general measures, that does not work. The prefects already have the possibility of constraining everything. person, regardless of their age, for medical checks. A targeted, personalized spot check is required.”
“When you have passed the baccalaureate, no one calls it into question”
Imposing medical examinations for the elderly is “stigmatizing” adds Philippe Nozière, president of the 40 million motorists association. “We are absolutely against calling into question the lifetime license, he explains. When you have passed the baccalaureate, we do not call it into question five, ten or 20 years later. Seniors who live in the countryside absolutely need their mobility. We cannot, overnight, decree that they can no longer move around.
Anne Lavaud, general delegate of the Prévention Routière association, agrees that medical visits are not effective. On the other hand, she believes that additional driving hours should be offered to elderly motorists, on a voluntary basis and without sanction. “It is sometimes enough to spend an hour of driving with a driving instructor, every year or every two years, in the person’s vehicle and on their usual route, so that the instructor can identify the small everyday issues and support people in changing their behavior, she argues. Obviously, there is a financial dimension, as always.
