Road Safety Seminars for Mature Drivers

A free conference for mature drivers will be held in Greenhithe in October.

For drivers over the age of 60, the idea is to reinforce knowledge that may have been forgotten, heighten hazard awareness, and cover newer subjects such as smart motorways and eco driving.

Run by the Kent County Council Road Safety team, they have just held their sixth fully-booked conference in Faversham.

Carol Collen from the team said: “The feedback we’ve received from people has been excellent.
“We try to create an informal atmosphere, provide plenty of coffee and biscuits, and cover a lot of information in the three hours.”

The next conference will be at the at Stone Pavilion, Greenhithe on October 15.

For anyone interested, contact Carol on [email protected] to reserve a space.

“Over half of all collisions involving a 65+ year old car driver involved failing to look properly.”

In response to an ever ageing population, resulting in an emerging trend for casualties aged 65 and over, the team developed the road safety seminar.

The seminar covered general road safety advice, including motorway driving, motorway breakdowns and pedestrian safety but also covered topics specific to this age group, such as decline in peripheral vision, reduced mobility and impairment through prescribed drugs.

To obtain more qualitative data, focus groups for road users aged 65+ were held in April 2017. Although there some additional issues as we age, many drivers in this age group recognise these changes and self regulate by avoiding certain driving situations, such as driving at night, during rush hour or on certain types of road.

The valuable insight gained from these focus groups and the findings from the seminars, will be used to develop future seminars. Whilst many older drivers continue to drive safety and confidently for many years, some older drivers gradually reduce the amount of driving they do and look at alternative means of transport.

Some drivers take a driving assessment to update their skills and give themselves more confidence. Details of the assessment, alongside lots of other useful information, can be found on the ROSPA older drivers’ website.

RoSPA offer an Experienced Driver Assessment that many older drivers take to update their skills and improve their confidence on the roads. Details of this assessment, alongside lots of other useful information, can be found on the RoSPA Older Drivers website.

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