Grey road rage: Senior citizens angrily reject top traffic cop’s call to get out of the driver’s seat

THIRTY-THREE drivers over 70 died on NSW roads last year, but senior citizens have hit back at police suggestions that they ‘get off the road’.

Alan Wood, 88 years old averages 20,000 KM a year in his trusty old 1983 Toyota Landcruiser and travels the continent. He knows how to change tyres and do all the mechanics. He's got a great driving record and thinks the government wants to put the oldies in pokie palaces and not let them drive. Picture: Jonathan Ng

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SENIOR citizens have blasted a police suggestion they quit driving as “offensive stereotyping” while the NRMA has argued older drivers are not the cause of last year’s road toll spike.

The motoring organisation released a breakdown of road toll statistics showing elderly drivers were not over-represented in fatalities.

Rather, the increase in road deaths among the 70 years plus demographic came from passengers and pedestrians.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed NSW Police head of traffic John Hartley’s concern drivers aged over 70 were two-and-a-half times more ­likely to be killed in an accident.

“Don’t wait until you’re ­involved in a near miss, or a crash, to reconsider your driving ability,” he said.

But NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said analysis of the road toll showed in 2015 the increase in deaths was not due to bad driving from older people. He said last year 33 drivers over the age of 70 died in NSW, an increase of only one from 2014.

The number of elderly pedestrian fatalities had risen from 13 to 24 in the same period.

“The privilege of driving should be available at any age. We don’t want blanket policy decisions made on the basis of a demographic,” Mr Khoury said.

Chief executive of the Council on the Ageing Ian Yates described the proposal that over 70s put away their ­licence as “frankly absurd”.

“The vast bulk are driving safely,” he said. “To suggest a whole section of society not be allowed to drive on the basis of a small minority is very ageist.”

Irate elderly motorists condemned the traffic chief’s warning, ­arguing police should target ­behaviours, not demographics.

Retiree Alan Wood, 88, who recently spent 14 months on the road trekking around Australia in his trusty 1983 Toyota Landcruiser, was not impressed with the idea.

“They want us oldies to be put away in a club playing pokies,” he said. “Well, I’d ­rather be out and about.”

The spokesman for the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association, Paul Versteege, said it amounted to discrimination against older drivers, who already faced “draconian” safety measures.

NSW laws makes citizens over 75 have a medical exam each year to keep their licence, while the over 85s have to sit a practical test every two years.

“It’s incomprehensible that the police would use the age of 70 as the age where people need to be very cautious,” he said.

“We would argue that any age is an age to be cautious. It comes down to driving ability.”