Interesting Facts

There are 191 drivers in the UK aged 100 and over. (The oldest is a 107-year-old woman. In Britain, you need to have an eye test just before your 70th birthday, but after turning 70, all you have to do is declare whether or not you are fit to drive, the self-declaration has to be filled in every 3 years, but it is not backed up by any formal medical or driving tests. Some people are calling for a change in the law.  Recently an 84 year old woman died recently after colliding with several cars and then crashing into the central reservation whilst driving the wrong way on the A1 in Northumberland. I'd happily see the old git in a Merc who drove into the side of our camper van in Portugal taken off the road (it is only a little bump, but he didn't even apologise even though we let him go without fussing), but that said, last year the Daily Mail reported on Arthur Whitaker, who at 100 years old had spent 85 years behind the wheel, and clocked up a staggering 2.5 million ...

To pass your driving test in the UK, you must be able to read (with glasses or contact lenses, if necessary) a car number plate made after 1 September 2001 from 20 metres. (In addition, you must also meet the minimum eyesight standard for driving by having a visual acuity of at least decimal 0.5 (6/12) measured on the Snellen scale (with glasses or contact lenses, if necessary) using both eyes together or, if you have sight in one eye only, in that eye.  But as I mentioned earlier, you don't have to have a regular eye test, which accounts for all the old codgers, driving at 10mph craning over the steering wheel.)