Frequently Asked Questions

I’m concerned about my 83 year old father’s driving and he has recently picked up a few scratches and dents in his car? What can I do?

The first thing you need to assess is why his driving skills seem to have deteriorated lately. It could be just increasing age but there could be something medical contributing to this.

Has his eyesight been checked recently? Does he seem more forgetful or confused than he used to be?

You could sit with him on a drive on the roads he likes to drive on and see if you can identify which parts of his driving concern you. Cognitive problems are a very common cause of driving problems, and if you have some details about the main concerns, at DriveTalk Consultancy can advise you if this is likely to be due to a cognitive problem, .

If you are concerned about potential cognitive problems, you should get a doctor to take a look in the first instance.

If the medical professional diagnoses a cognitive problem, what should I do then, take the keys away?

Not necessarily, as that may be a step too far at this point. Refresher training may help but cognitive problems make things much more difficult to change habits and learn new skills.

You should ensure that DVLA are notified of the cognitive problems so that your father is covered legally. They will start a medically based licence enquiry to determine whether your father is medically fit to carry on driving.

Even with a diagnosed dementia, DVLA may well decide that a person can continue to hold a driving licence, particularly in the early stages. This decision is likely to be based partly on medical reports from the driver’s own doctor, but DVLA may require a driving assessment report in some instances.

What if my father is allowed to keep his licence, but his family all think he is unsafe to carry on?

The current system is far from an exact science, largely dependent on medical opinion, although a small percentage of drivers with dementia are required to undergo a comprehensive driving assessment at a Driving Mobility Centre.

Because of the legal and medical considerations, the importance of a family member’s opinion on safety, particularly one who has sat as a passenger with their loved one, is widely underestimated and underused.

You may be the one who has the largest understanding of how your father actually drives on a day-to-day basis, and this is important information. However, different families look at things through different lenses.

Some families are concerned about their loved one’s welfare and the effect it could have on them if they are told to stop driving, so will convince themselves that driving won’t cause any major problems. They may have personal reasons to maintain the driver’s licence, such as where a man relies on his wife to drive or visa-versa.

Other families will mostly focus on the fear that their loved one could be a danger to themselves and to others and will disregard the huge impact that stopping driving can have.

In truth, the system seeks to find the best balance between road safety and personal welfare.

If you have concerns, please contact us at DriveTalk Consultancy, so that our highly experienced professionals can talk through the situation with you, and then point you in the most appropriate direction.

If the medical condition is sufficiently progressed, and the evidence is strong enough that the driver is no longer safe enough, then the driving licence will be revoked, but this process could take a long time to consider.

Is there anything I can do to keep things safe whilst this enquiry takes place?

You will get a good idea about the risk faced by a loved one, simply by sitting in on some journeys they make.

One of the main things that DVLA have to take into account is that a driving licence allows someone to drive more or less anywhere, without restriction, just like all other drivers.

However, it is a widely recognised fact that the way older drivers maintain their safety into very old age, in the absence of a medical condition, is by being sensible about the roads they drive on.

The slowing down of the speed at which information can be processed due to increasing age, and exacerbated by cognitive impairment, means that the more difficult the driving task, the more likely a collision is to happen.

Take a large multi-lane, multi-exit, busy roundabout for example. The amount of sensory input required to navigate this safely will be far higher than just driving to the local shops at a quite time of day.

So, the first thing to do is to try to ensure the driver restricts the roads they drive on. Help them plan routes, for example which avoid these types of fast, complex road layouts, including Motorways.

Also try to ensure they don’t have to make right turns out of side roads onto a fast flowing main road where visibility is restricted. This type of manoeuvre can be very high risk for someone who is cognitively impaired and can easily result in a serious injury or even fatality if they get it wrong. Take time to find an alternative route to avoid these types of junction.

So, there is a world of difference in safety terms, for those that only drive on familiar roads at quiet times of the day whilst avoiding all high-risk environments, and those that don’t restrict their driving patterns.

Of course, in the absence of a graduated licence or insurance restriction, particularly if short term memory is a problem, it could be that the driver inadvertently gets into these high-risk environments. This needs to be risk assessed by monitoring driving patterns and investigating whether a simple wrong turn somewhere can lead to a high-risk road type.

If necessary, fit a tracker to the vehicle and monitor the routes used.

Can I arrange for him to have his safety assessed on a driving assessment?

There are two types of driving assessment available in much of the UK.

Driving Mobility. This organisation has assessment centres around the country that are used by DVLA, in a minority of cases, to assess whether a driver with cognitive impairement is fit to drive. They can assess fitness to hold a driving licence because they have input from both Occupational Therapists and Driving Assessors. Driving Mobility also offer the same assessment on a voluntary basis, with the cost ranging from around £100.00 up to more than £300.00. For more information you can visit Driving Mobility website (www.drivingmobility.org.uk).

A local driving assessor via your local authority road safety team, IAM Road Smart or from a Driving School. The benefits of this approach are that the roads used are likely to be familiar and it may be in the driver’s own vehicle. However, this type of assessment can only be used as a guide for the driver, family members, medical professionals or DVLA, and cannot determine fitness to hold a driving licence in itself. Most driving assessors in this field are not sufficiently knowledgeable or experienced enough to carry out an appropriate investigation to risk assess someone with cognitive impairment. DriveTalk Consultancy have access to specialist driving assessors but currently only cover a small area of southern England.

What happens if he refuses to notify DVLA about his condition?

It is a legal requirement to notify DVLA about cognitive problems if they affect driving, so by not doing so he would be driving illegally leading to a fine of up to £1000.00. If he were to have a collision, the insurance company may not pay up and he would likely face prosecution.

If he tells DVLA, can he drive whilst they are carrying out their enquiries?

A medical enquiry by DVLA can take many weeks or even months in many cases. During this time, it is still legal to drive unless DVLA or a relevant medical professional has said otherwise.

Once he has submitted the relevant form (CQ1) to DVLA, he can even drive if is current licence expires providing his doctor supports driving. This is covered under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Regulations 1988.

However, doctors don’t usually see their patients drive and so may automatically tell him not to drive, just in case.

Other doctors use that as a reason to allow their patient to carry on driving until DVLA makes a decision. This is where the system becomes a little inconsistent.

If you are not sure how to proceed, we can advise you if you contact DriveTalk Consultancy.