Controversy The DGT will evaluate in a year the prohibition of the margin to advance
Reform The new rules and fines that arrive on March 21
When in 2011 Tráfico presented its Road Safety strategy until 2020, it set 13 objectives to meet.
Once the balance has been made, and taking as the latest data those of 2019 -since those of 2020 are contaminated by the coronavirus-, the
Interior indicated that only "a low degree of compliance" has been achieved.
The reason: Although a revision was made in 2015,
only four of the 13 targets have made the cut.
The two most important - lowering to 37 deaths per million inhabitants and reducing the number of seriously injured by 35% - have been overcome.
One of those that has not been achieved was "cutting the accident rate of drivers over 64 years of age by 10%".
That forced that, in 2019, it had been lowered to 185 deceased.
The real figure was 205, almost the same as had been counted in 2009.
Same as 10 years ago
In addition, and in parallel, the DGT also considered "improving the monitoring of the driving skills of the elderly."
If that monitoring has been done, it has had no results.
The situation remains the same.
In other words, from the age of 65,
the permit must be renewed every five years - three for buses and trucks - and this does not require an exam,
"only pass a medical examination."
The traditional psychotechnical, the same as the rest of drivers despite the fact that with old age, we lose hearing, sight and we become slower in movements and reactions.
This deterioration accelerates over the years and driving skills can be affected by medication.
Because
between 40% and 50% of those over 65 are prescribed an average of five medications a day,
many of which are incompatible with getting behind the wheel.
Driving age limit?
Until now, nobody has wanted to open the melon about setting an age limit for driving.
The Director of Traffic has recognized that many of the elderly affirm that their freedom depends on the car, and since they vote,
no one has dared to deprive them of driving.
But the deadlines for the renewal of the permit among very old users will be reviewed.
Pere Navarro advanced it in November.
And less than a month ago, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, insisted on the idea, after the accident with five deaths (see support below) caused by an 87-year-old motorist.
The idea is to shorten those deadlines and set others more adapted to "the psychophysical evolution of people."
Five dead and four hospitalized due to a multiple crash on the A-7
Review every 2 years
From the Fesvial Foundation they propose
"carrying out more exhaustive psychophysical examinations" every two years from the age of 70.
Because this is another of the lines of work in which no progress has been made.
On the one hand, of the more than 3,000 medical examination centers that exist, not all of them have the same rate;
They charge what they estimate.
This can lead to tests with a very different degree of quality.
To this must be added a volume of inspections that seems insufficient:
in 2016, the last year for which data is available, 550 establishments were inspected.
That is, just one in five.
One of the tests that is passed in the psychotechnical
Just 2% rejections
The fact is that, among the elderly,
the percentage of those who do not pass recognition is marginal: it ranges from 0.1% among those between 65 and 70 years old, to 2%
when they are over 86 years old.
Then comes the group of those who pass the cut cleanly, although the percentage drops from 29.9% to 0.9% in the aforementioned age groups.
The largest category is that of those who achieve the apt, but with restrictions:
they are 67.7% of the total up to 70 years, and more than 90% of 75 and above.
In six out of 10 cases, the limitations refer to vision failure.
Another problem is the lack of communication with the Health and Primary Care systems.
“In France or Sweden, if the family doctor detects a problem
or pathology in a patient that may affect driving, she informs the traffic authorities.
That does not happen in Spain» they point out in Fesvial and it has been like this for years.
In 2013, the DGT -then with María Seguí at the helm- already asked doctors to report these cases.
In the end,
the responsibility for prohibiting an older person from getting behind the wheel falls on his relatives on many occasions.
Fewer accidents than the rest
It is also true that older motorists have proportionately fewer claims.
They are 16% of all drivers, but 8% of those who are involved in accidents with victims.
However, given their physical conditions, they are less able to withstand injuries resulting from traffic accidents.
And so, while between 2009 and 2019 the total number of drivers killed fell by 32%, among the elderly the figure remained stable.
Which also has to do with the fact that they are, due to demographic evolution and the increase in life expectancy, an increasingly populated group.
Their number went from 2.8 million to 4.38 million in a decade, which means that almost half of the people over 64 who live in Spain have some type of permit or card.
This evolution will only go further.
The INE forecasts that in 2050 almost a third of the population in Spain will be elderly.
That would be almost four times more than in 1960.
MISTAKE OR CALCULATION ERRORS
AR / CF
Entering a highway in the opposite direction or running over a group of cyclists are not accidents that only very old drivers suffer.
But the loss of aptitudes raises the risk of having them.
As it happened in the following cases, most of them quite recent.
MARCH 12, 2016.
An 87-year-old man, at the wheel of an off-road vehicle
, takes ahead of several cyclists who are circulating in a group when he tries to overtake them.
One of them dies and seven others are wounded of varying degrees.
It happened at km 44 of the PO-552 road between A Guarda and Baiona (Pontevedra).
The accident occurred on a wide road, in a straight area and with good visibility.
JANUARY 28, 2021.
Seven kilometers in the opposite direction and in the middle of the fog, a 74-year-old motorist traveled along the A-92 highway, near Archidona, before being arrested.
No accident occurred and
the driver, with the license expired since 2018, stated that, after realizing his mistake, he continued forward looking for a way out.
MAY 16, 2021
.
Head-on collision between two vehicles on the outer ring of the M-50, near Majadahonda (Madrid).
The two motorists die, a 49-year-old man who was going to work and another 86-year-old.
According to the investigations of the agents,
the latter would have been confused when taking a detour
when he wanted to go to the A6 motorway
and, although he circulated in the opposite direction for a very short time, it was long enough to end in tragedy.
JANUARY 30, 2022.
For unknown reasons,
an 87-year-old driver accesses the A-7 motorway, heading towards Valencia, but in the opposite direction.
It is night.
Two other people aged 89 and 77 are traveling with him.
Barely 10 kilometers later, at the height of Rotglà i Corberà, they crashed head-on into a car occupied by four young people who were returning to the University.
Three of them die and two, including the driver, of the offending vehicle.
5 FEBRUARY 2022.
The Civil Guard of A Coruña, together with the maintenance services of the AP-9 motorway, intercept a car that traveled several kilometers towards Santiago de Compostela,
but on a lane destined for A Coruña.
At the wheel was a 74-year-old man who was totally disoriented.
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