Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on over-70s potentially being banned from driving if they fail eye tests

Motorists over 70 could be banned from the roads if they fail compulsory eye tests as part of a wider shake-up of driving laws in the UK.

These changes also include reducing the drink-driving limit in England and Wales and introducing penalty points for passengers not wearing seatbelts.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gavin Gray, UK correspondent with US Now, hey, Kevin, either
have that So how serious are they about the thing?
You fail your eyesight test at seventy in you're off
the roads?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, very serious. I think this is something this government
is now pushing towards it. It comes off the back
of an inquest into the deaths of four people caused
by drivers with failing eyesight that saw one coroner call
the UK's licensing system the laxist in Europe. Indeed, the
UK is said to be one of only three European
countries to rely on self reporting of eyesight or visual

(00:33):
conditions affecting the ability to drive, and this government says
that is not good enough. So the coroner themselves were
saying that in no other circumstance would we accept one
six hundred people dying a year, with thousands more seriously injured,
costing the NHS, the National Health Service, more than four
point four billion New Zealand dollars. And so that's why

(00:57):
they're looking at this. England and Wales coming into line
with Scotland on other matters, reducing the drink drive limit
and also introducing penalty points for passengers not wearing a
seat belt, So it is a much much tougher landscape
that they're looking to bring in here for those on
the roads. Plenty of people supporting it, other people saying, well,

(01:19):
you're taking away a lot of people's independence. They might
be perfectly able to drive if they actually got some
glasses or whatever, but this government seems pretty tough on
doing that. You must do that before you get out
on the road, and that seems pretty sensible.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Really, How long is it going to take the courts
to clear these what like five hundred odd people are
listed at the protest.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
A long long time. The courts are already pretty backed
up here, and we're being told our prisons are fall
to capacity, hence the early release programs we've been seeing
over the last few months. However, the fate of the
five hundred and thirty two who were arrested on Saturday
for supporting a group called Palestine Action remains unclear. Now.

(02:00):
Palestine Action is simply a group that supports Palestine and
what's happening in Gaza, trying to help the people of Gaza. However,
the government prescribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group, and
therefore membership of or support for it is criminal and
it can be punished by up to fourteen years in prison. Now,

(02:24):
on Saturday this weekend, outside Parliament, loads of people gathered
and at one o'clock they all suddenly wrote on these
signs that they had brought with them something like I
oppose genocide, I support Palestine action, at which point the
police moved in and arrested them five hundred and twenty
one for displaying placards in support of the group. The

(02:47):
rest were assaulting police officers. Just six arrests for assaulting
police officers, two for breaching public order conditions, one for
obstructing a constable, and one for a racially aggravated public
ord a fence. Now, this is the largest number of
arrests made by the police Metropolitan Police on a single
day in the last ten years. And Heather it was

(03:09):
no student protest. The average age of those arrested was
fifty four and the majority of them were aged between
sixty and sixty nine. Wow.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Hey, so why did the restaurant association the Italian ones
send a lissa to the UK ambassador.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, they're pretty angry about this. So the Italian's very
proud of their food, but the UK Good Food Guide
published a recipe for a traditional Roman dish and according
to the hospitality sector in Italy, they got it wrong
and they're mad about it. And so the dish that

(03:47):
is caccio a pepe was described as having four simple
ingredients spaghetti, pepper, parmesan and butter. Oh no, said the
association representing restaurants in Italy. It only has three pasta,
pepper and pecorino. Pecorino is an Italian hard cheese. So
all they've done in the Good Food Guide one is

(04:08):
put parmesan and butter in instead of this other Italian
cheese pecorina, more difficult to get hold of here in
the UK. They also describe the Good Food said it's
a sort of simple dish that could be whipped up
for a speedy lunch. The Association of Italian Restaurant says, no,
this is to be enjoyed. It takes time to get
it right. You can't just quickly whip it up for lunch.

(04:29):
And you wouldn't believe. They've actually written a letter to
the UK Ambassador Edward Llewellin to complain, as well as
the UK Good Food website.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Ah good on them, you know what they love their
food I Gevin, thanks so much. Devin Gray, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
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