Only capable drivers should be allowed to get behind the wheel

I read this article a couple weeks ago and saved it to post about it because I believe it makes a very good point: anyone who reaches a certain age should be recertified often for driving and their license renewed only if they can pass strict vision and reflex/response tests.

Driver recertification and road testing should be required for those age 65 and older.
[...]
But the driver who hit me has scarcely been inconvenienced. He was charged with failure to yield and issued a $128 fine. He is permitted to drive without restrictions and without any assessment of his competence. In all probability, he has had no legally mandated driver training since he received his driver's license more than half a century ago.
[...]
Someone can get behind the wheel of a potentially lethal automobile without having had his basic competence tested in decades. Most drivers receive their last exposure to driver education and testing in their mid-teens.

This makes no sense. Given their great, and frequently proven, capacity to do harm, drivers should be required to take a continuing driver education course every 10 years.

Special emphasis should be placed on elderly drivers.
[...]
Accordingly, it makes sense to recertify drivers at age 65 and require subsequent recertification, based on road testing, every five years thereafter. Yet only two states, Illinois and New Hampshire, require road tests for older drivers -- and those only after age 75. Some states actually reduce requirements; in Tennessee, licenses issued to drivers over 65 do not expire.
[...]
We should require continuing education for all drivers, and licensing recertification and mandatory road testing for drivers age 65 and older. It would make the roads safer for all.

I couldn't agree more. Coming from Italy, where you're presented with a huge rules book to study for the exam and the test isn't easy at all, I was aghast when I saw how easy it was to get a driver's license in the US. The book to study for the test is more like a pamphlet, and the test's questions could be aced by a drunken skunk. The eye visit is simple and Ray told me the driving lessons are more a formality than a real learning environment (he told me he once was able to park the car without touching the brakes at all, because the instructor was doing it all for him with his set of pedals; how beneficial is that exactly?!)

The reason the rules book is so big in Italy is that new signals are occasionally introduced to account for new necessities, and, unless you're trying to get a driver's license (or get it renewed,) you'd never have a chance to learn about them. The end result would be that you're on the road, see a new signal, and have no idea whatsoever how to behave. Our book actually grew exponentially in size when the European Union came into being, because people could drive across borders more freely now, and their knowledge of other nation's road signals became a necessity to avoid accidents and fines.

Our driver's license lasts 10 years, after which you can easily get it renewed, but only up to a certain age (I guess 60 or 65, I'm not sure), after which you have to get it renewed much more frequently (I think it's every 5 years at first and then every year once you pass another age limit).

Sure, getting your license renewed can be a pain. You have to make time to go get it done, can be stressful, and if you don't pass, you have to take more in-depth tests, but so what? We'd all be safer on the road. So, not to inconvenience the elderly and force them to get tested thoroughly and often in order to be able to keep driving, we let them drive without checks at all? Is that a smarter policy?

I mean look at Tennessee: if you're older than 65, here's your driver's license and don't bother coming back to get checked ever again. You did your duty, now you're all set for life. And we don't really care if you get glaucoma or macular degeneration, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, dementia or any other debilitating disease. Go right ahead, nothing bad can happen. We're confident you'll be careful and watch out for the pedestrians that dare cross the same road you're driving on.

Are they insane? I know everyone thinks they're great drivers and everyone else stinks, but with my current commute of an hour each way, mostly on secondary roads that cut across the countryside, I've had my share of encounters with older drivers (and younger ones too) who might definitely benefit from a checkup of their driving abilities.

I certainly would feel safer if they had to go get checked in order to keep driving.