The RSA's plans to help untested older drivers may indeed be a good idea, writes Kilian Doyle. Now read on . . .
YOU MAY have heard about the Road Safety Authority writing to pensioners on provisional licences offering them help to pass their driving tests.
"That's ageist, giving preferential treatment to oldies over young folk," you might have scoffed before embarking on a tirade about doddery geezers pottering the wrong way around roundabouts while ranting to their spinster cousins in the passenger seat about how the country has gone to the dogs since Dev died. Or was that just me?
But hold on, said I, this may actually be a pretty good idea. Maybe it is ageist. But in a good way. Nothing wrong with a bit of positive discrimination sometimes.
So, in the spirit of fairness, I called the RSA and asked for a copy of the letter. Given my past history of lambasting their every move, I feared it might never arrive, that they didn't want me to see it in case I pretended it was written in REALLY BIG LETTERS.
But, lo and behold, there it was. Normal sized font. Nary a hint of patronising guff. Just a gentle, reassuring offer of help. I was impressed.
As you are aware, only drivers with a full licence for at least two years will be entitled to accompany provisionals when the new driver licensing regime kicks in after June 30th.
Traditionally, for must of us, that supervisory role would have been filled by our frazzled parents. This is, understandably, not an option for the 2,500 provisional pensioners in the State. Anyway, even if they were alive, their parents probably never passed a driving test either.
So now they will have to get a licence. But many unlicensed pensioners may not have sat a test of any kind for decades, let alone one the passing or failing of which could mean the difference between continuing a life of motorised independence, or being doomed to one of isolation. The stress must be heavier on their shoulders than a calf in a suit of armour.
Just because they haven't passed tests doesn't necessarily make them bad drivers. Many older drivers have been at it for aeons without ever crashing. Wish I could say the same myself.
Fact is, they are far less likely to be involved in crashes than younger drivers. In 2006, the over-65s accounted for 7.2 per cent of driver deaths, compared to over half in the 18-34 age group. You don't have to be a genius to work out the significance of that statistic.
I have a simple explanation for this disparity. Risk. Young men are mad for the stuff. Speed + hormones = dangerlust.
But for the vast majority of older people - the obviously-addled octogenarian parachutists you hear about every so often excepted - risk holds no appeal. You won't find them pulling handbrake turns on dual carriageways. Getting to the shops without being ploughed into by some adrenalised teenager in a Subaru is danger enough for them for one day, thanks very much.
While their records may be unblemished, they have probably picked up certain practices that would send a tester fleeing pale-faced in terror. You can't teach your granny to suck eggs overnight. Or hillstart. Hence the stress.
That said, the RSA says there is no question of dumbing down the exam. Pensioners will do exactly the same test as the rest of us.
The RSA has even offered to appoint special contacts to those who are especially fraught by the prospect of tests, or those who fail repeatedly. These kindly souls will handle their charges with kid driving gloves to ease them through the process.
I'd like to think that if they are either incredibly lucky or irredeemably unfortunate, they might even be assigned Gaybo himself. "Good lad, good lad, well done. Licence for everyone in the car. Good lad . . ."