Near Miss of the Day 816: Driver surrenders licence after sideswiping cyclist at 50mph

I'd assumed that you cut it up and then posted it back to the DVLA...

Agreed, it seems suspect. I do hope they check the driver's licence records in a few  weeks to check that they have actually surrendered it.

The cynic in me assumes were intending on offering a fixed penalty notice and the driver replied "ok but I'm going ot surrender my licence, so what happens now?", and that meant they would have to send the case to court, and that was just too much work.

The "action" here being surrendering their licence. I've known a few elderly people who have had close shaves which have made them (or family members) realise they're no longer capable of driving safely, and so they've handed in their licences. 

Ageist rubbish would be suggesting that over-65s don't read things properly and are quick to take unnecessary offence. 

Great!  But note also that the current system requires you to renew your licence every 3 years when over 70.  Are they just harassing older people?  It's also left to people - by their own observations, which might not be so acute, and against their own interests in some ways - to report this.  There is no standard "test" we apply currently.

This is not incompatible with the observation that young people - who should be perfectly healthy - have many accidents.  Different cause there.

Empirical evidence suggests otherwise. This is is why insurance premiums rise for older people. Is this ageist? Possibly.

Insurance is about risk. Are higher premiums for 18-25 ageist?
Premiums decline to about 60 then go back up as people become less competent.

This is exactly the point I am trying to make to our name changing friend. I absolutely don't think it is ageist and I don't think the earlier comment was either, regardless of how excellent a driver Martin is/believes himself to be. On average older drivers are worse.

The driver that put me in hospital for 2 weeks, and left me with life changing injuries was 80.
He drove in to me.

Marin92 wrote:

"A driver (not particularly elderly which might normally explain such an action)"

What a load of ageist rubbish. I am a keen cyclist and car driver of 65 and in my experience older people drive slower and with a lot more consideration.

65 is not elderly (I say that as a 53-y-o who regards himself as being in early middle age!) and the cyclist isn't referring to their action but their decision to surrender their licence as being something one might expect more from an elderly person.

There's plenty of ageism around driving - I've heard people remarking unfavourably on the fact that a 90-y-o friend of mine is still driving when he is actually considerably safer than most people I know who are half his age - but this isn't an example of it.

Some old people, just like some people driver slower and with consideration. Sadly not all though.

Rot. A lot of the incidents that I experience are with drivers in their late 60's. A recent one being NMOD 785. I've found that they may drive slower but their reaction times are shoddy and their peripheral vision and spacial awareness are questionable. I've found that many of them have a tendency to be pretty much self entitled. You may be one of the few exceptions but you also have the edge by being a cyclist which will influence your driving. 

No one cares.  Wing mirror.

Wing mirror because it sticks out the side, like the wing (or mainplane if you really want to get pedantic) of an aircraft . In the US it is also called a wing mirror and has never been called a fender mirror, as your comment implies would have been the case in the 70's.
Grow up and move on, your constant to "Door mirrors," are becoming somewhat tedious.
 

Perhaps it was a Mark 3 Cortina and it *was* a wing mirror. 

swldxer wrote:

DOOR mirror - it's not 1973.

"Wing Mirror" dictionary definitions:

Merriam Webster:  a mirror on the outside of a vehicle that allows the driver to see what is behind and to the right or left of the vehicle

Cambridge:  a mirror on the outside of a car door that allows the driver to see the vehicles that are behind or trying to pass  

Collins:  The wing mirrors on a car are the mirrors on each side of the car on the outside.

Macmillan: a small mirror on each side of a vehicle. The American word is sideview mirror.

Wiki: A side-view mirror (or side mirror), also known as a wing mirror, is a mirror placed on the exterior of motor vehicles for the purposes of helping the driver see areas behind and to the sides of the vehicle, outside the driver's peripheral vision (in the "blind spot").

If you still aren't convinced, try googling "replacement door mirror" and you will find that the majority of UK outlets and manufacturers that pop up are selling things called "wing mirrors" not "door mirrors".   I do note however that many household furniture outlets sell "door mirrors", but they would be prettty difficult to fit on your car, so much safer to buy a new wing mirror, which everybody will understand.

[/quote] .......   I do note however that many household furniture outlets sell "door mirrors", but they would be prettty difficult to fit on your car, so much safer to buy a new wing mirror, which everybody will understand.  [/quote]

You have no idea how determined I can be.  And I have a rotary drill, powered, I think,  by electricity.  And a supply of rawlplugs! 

I suppose the key thing here is how much later is "some time later". CUK believe the key thing for the safety of cyclists is not punishment but getting drivers who put cyclists in danger off the road. In other wordr driving bans are more effective than jail. If the time between surrendering a licence and getting it back is equivalent to the length of the driving ban the motorist would have got then this is a cost efficient way of getting the dangerous motorist off the road. With the courts seemingly log jammed at the moment it could be a pragmatic solution. It all hinges, however, on how long it takes before the offender gets the licence back.

The cynic in me assumes this is just a very clever dodge. Because they surrendered their licence they're not getting prosecuted, because they're not getting prosecuted they're not getting any blemishes on their driving record, because they voluntarily surrendered a clean licence they can get it back whenever they want. I doubt their insurance would even change.

Maybe, but I think we should give him kudos all the same.

Given you can get points on a licence before you are eligible, I don't see why they didn't for this.
What is to stop the driver from changing their mind in a few years ?

hirsute wrote:

Given you can get points on a licence before you are eligible, I don't see why they didn't for this. What is to stop the driver from changing their mind in a few years ?

My thoughts exactly. As far as I can ascertain there is no minimum time before which one cannot reapply for a voluntarily surrendered licence. Not saying it is in this instance - no way of knowing - but it could be a clever strategy for someone for whom it would be preferable to give up their licence for a few months than face a conviction. 

Maybe it boils down to a lack of funds and the decision was taken on the basis that, if the licence has been surrendered, money didn't need spending and could be spent on a pub lunch instead.