Veteran has licence claimed after kerbside incident during test

AN 89-year-old man will face court next month after he was forced to give up his licence during a mandatory driving test where he allegedly “lost control”. But he wants his licence back.

WAR veteran Warren Keats has been driving for 67 years but a NSW Transport Department ruling has claimed the 89-year-old’s licence.

The Tweed Heads local says the ruling could “kill him” and is determined to fight it in court.

Mr Keats lost his licence in November after he hit a kerb during a practical driving test.

All drivers above 85 in NSW must complete driving tests with authorised instructors every two years.

The 89-year-old wants his licence back- and will fight it in court.

Mr Keats said the instructor told him he “lost control of the car” and would not be able to keep his licence.

Following the stress of this, Mr Keats claims he suffered a “turn” at the Transport Department and had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

After a short stay in hospital Mr Keats returned to the department to request another attempt at the test, but was told he could not.

Mr Keats is determined to plead his case to retake the test.

The former historian and painter said he needed his licence to drive to the supermarket, put his bets on and to attend his retired seaman meetings — all in a 10km radius of his home.

“After 67 years of driving and never losing one point off my licence, you would think it would mean something,” he said.

“If I don’t get my licence back it will shorten my life, I am sure of it. I would only have a couple more years left then.”

Mr Keats went to the Tweed Heads Local Court yesterday — the first time he had ever entered a courtroom.

Warren Keats is fighting to get his licence back. Photo: Campbell Gellie

The matter was listed for a hearing, but was adjourned after a previous case took longer than expected.

“My daughter can’t stay at home all the time waiting to drive me around,” he said.

Mr Keats said he was not asking to drive to Brisbane or hoon around at night.

But Sue Jenkins, whose son Dann died in October 2016 after he was hit by a car driven by an 87-year-old man, says the driving tests for the elderly do not go far enough.

“I want mandatory driver testing annually from the age of 75,” she said. “A simulator driver test with an emergency event in the test to show reaction and response time, to show that the elderly driver can get their foot from the accelerator to the brake in an emergency event on the road.

Tweed Heads Local Court. Google image.

“(Also an) eyesight test performed by an optometrist and a test for dementia in the fit-to-drive certificate.”

Mrs Jenkins has petitions for tougher testing she plans to present to the NSW and Queensland Governments, once she has collected more than 10,000 signatures on each.

Mr Keats is scheduled to return to the Tweed Heads Local Court on May 9.