Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety

Responding to the news that the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) has called for national strategy for an ageing car-driving population, Age Cymru's Director Influencing and Programme Development' Victoria Lloyd says:

"The subject of older drivers and testing is picked up every six months or so and turned into attention-grabbing headlines about age-based testing, but does it reflect public thinking?

"Wider society is informed enough to know that age alone is not an indicator of a person's ability to perform a task.

"We all also know that stopping people driving, or putting hurdles in place to stop them driving when reach a specific age, is not going to solve the issue at hand -poor driving can occur at any age.

"Age Cymru would welcome any initiatives that will improve safety for road users,  but targeting drivers on the basis of their age - such as introducing a mandatory test for over-70s, as has been hinted at today by the PACTS report, is not the way to do this.

"Clearly there is an informed debate that needs to be had about reducing society's dependence on cars- for environmental reasons, to reduce congestion on our roads and make them safer places to be, and Age Cymru would welcome the opportunity to contribute to that debate."