Linda Hall: Let's forget the memory test

The elderly have learned lots of lessons during their lives and one of those is called caution.

I've got a test for you this week. Get someone to make a list of 10 words and have them read them out to you.

Then the pair of you talk about something entirely different for the next five minutes.

Now try and remember those 10 words. Talk about something else again for a few minutes, then try again.

Sound easy? Unless you have a really good memory it's not easy. I tried it on two people; one got three, the other got six, and then four the second time.

This is part of the test older drivers have to do to prove they are capable of driving from the age of 75, 80 and every two years after that (the people I tested were nowhere near that age ... one of them less than half the age).

They have to visit their doctor, who tests their eyesight and does this memory test.

Yes, there should be tests for older drivers but I'm really not sure what this memory test proves.

Surely a family doctor would know what their patient is capable of. Most people go to the same doctor for years, they would know if there were any medical problems which would prevent them from driving safely.

I know someone who failed this test (not my mother who got 8 out of 10). This person remembered five words the first time but only three the next. She's not long turned 80 but I can assure you that there's nothing wrong with her memory.

She passed the eyesight test with flying colours.

That was over two months ago. Her family doctor was away when she went for the test. Since then she has got a medical certificate from her doctor, which got lost when it was faxed. So now she has to return to the doctor at her own expense. Her independence is gone. Just think for a moment what it would be like to suddenly have to depend on others just to visit the supermarket.

Some people moan about elderly drivers going slow and causing traffic to back up. They say this causes drivers to take unnecessary risks because they become impatient and pass when they shouldn't.

It can be frustrating to be stuck behind a car going 60km in an 80km zone. But which would you prefer, a slow driver or a speeding one?

The elderly have learned lots of lessons during their lives and one of those is called caution.

They know only too well what would happen if they crashed into someone or something. So caution is part of their lives.

When you think about it, it's not the elderly who put lives at risk. Take a look at the statistics. Young males who throw caution to the wind are the ones we should be afraid of on the road, not the elderly.

Just a couple of weeks ago my daughter and I were returning from Napier, she was driving, we were on the motorway so were travelling at just under 100km, when out of nowhere this grey ute passed us on the inside. There was no merging lane, it was scary and unsettling.

As my daughter said as we got to the traffic lights on the Pakowhai Rd intersection and saw the ute stopped at the lights: "That didn't get him [and it was a young him] anywhere, did it?".

No it didn't, and it could well have cost us our lives if he'd clipped us, he was inches away.

In 50 years that driver, if he's lucky, will be driving "cautiously".

Perhaps, rather than remembering 10 random words, the test for the elderly could be questions about the road code, that makes much more sense to me.

-Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.