Elderly driving, taking away their keys.

One of my physician friends was doing an independent examination and realized the patient, who was incapable of driving safely, was still driving. In most provinces a physician has a duty to report a patient who shouldn't be driving. But this wasn't a typical doctor patient relationship.

So he called the College of Physicians and Surgeons (the physician regulator) and asked what to do. They told him he should not report the patient as he was not the patient's treating physician.

We discussed this situation at our noon doctor's meeting. We advised the examining physician to call the treating physician and remind him of his responsibility to report the patient to the driving license authorities. And then document that he had done so.
 
One of my physician friends was doing an independent examination and realized the patient, who was incapable of driving safely, was still driving. In most provinces a physician has a duty to report a patient who shouldn't be driving. But this wasn't a typical doctor patient relationship.

So he called the College of Physicians and Surgeons (the physician regulator) and asked what to do. They told him he should not report the patient as he was not the patient's treating physician.

We discussed this situation at our noon doctor's meeting. We advised the examining physician to call the treating physician and remind him of his responsibility to report the patient to the driving license authorities. And then document that he had done so.
I should add that physicians in most jurisdictions are protected by legislation from civil suits or college complaints for reporting an unfit driver, as long as the report is done in good faith. Reporting your buddy as a joke or the neighbour out of spite would not be protected.

The problem for my friend was that the legal protection is for a treating physician, and he was not in that role.
 
This is one of the most painful things to do when it comes to our elderly parents. That loss of independence is seriously frightening for them. It was frightening for me as well, to turn over a large part of her care to someone else.

Fortunately, my Mom never had a driver's license and understood perfectly when the time came to abandon her home. I like to think that it helped that we both had the talk before her mind was fully gone.
 
Having to take my grandad's keys then all his guns out of the house were two of the hardest things I've ever had to witness. Dementia left us no choice though..
 
She made a mistake and is okay.

I would see what transpires next before jumping to loss of license by forcing potentially damaging your relationship.
what's going to happen next is that she's going to kill someone else or herself if she keeps driving.

I'm sorry, driving is a privilege, not a right. Unfortunately we do not have systems in place in the country to test people for soundness, so we just rely on family members to do it. It's a broken system.

I've had to do it, three times. Twice with my own parents, and one with an elderly driver who almost killed me on my bike, starting straight at me from a stop and then driving directly into me as I was riding in a straight line with the clear right-of-way. She was in her mid-90's, and "got confused". (I basically threatened to sue her unless she relinquished her license. She did.).

Why do people think this is OK? Driving is a serious responsibility. If you're not capable of doing it, you're a clear danger to yourself and others. I doubt the OP is taking this decision lightly or doing it haphazardly.
 
In my home state. A family member can write a letter (Certified) to Dept. Motor Vehicles and request a hearing. Said hearing is used to determine one's ability for driving privileges. Specifically, based on age and mental capacity. A doctor can do the same.

Sorry to hearing about mom!
This is what happened with my father. But it was not a family member; I believe it was someone in a Safeway parking lot who took down his license plate. We got a letter from the DMV.
 
My 75 years old mother doesn't have her car keys at the moment and is one of the reasons for her severe depression. In 2015 she had a bad car accident that almost killed her and shattered her right arm to the point that it never healed correctly and is not fully functional.

She did buy another car after that and still drove occasionally and did get lost one time and didn't know how to get home. This past December she fell and broke her left wrist so was pretty much incapacitated, and a family friend had her car keys while she was in a nursing home recovering.

She is out of the nursing home now, but the friend still has her keys because she is still in no shape to drive. She has been diagnosed with mild dementia and probably should not be driving because of her physical limitations and because of her very depressive mental state.

It's difficult because none of us kids live remotely close to her and not in the position to take care of her.
 
OP declined to give the circumstances or even the history of this driver, whether this was the first, or one of many such incidents. Until said driver has a medical exam to evaluate her fitness to drive, I'd say it's unfair to her to take the keys away because of an accident. If she is such a risk, insurance will cancel her or the DMV won't renew her license. I see drunk drivers and people with their heads buried in their phones texting as causing more accidents then older drivers.

You cannot take your parent's keys away - legally; this constitutes Elder abuse.

You have no legal responsibility for them - unless you were assigned responsibility.
Now, moral and familiar responsibility is another debate

The DMV took my mothers license when she got in a "fender bender" minor accident pulling into a spot at Wachovia Bank in Fort Myers, FL. The responding female officer was a jerk from all reports and treated her badly on scene.
She was 83 at the time in 2002, and my Father had just passed away. Even I blamed her remotely from my house in New Hampshire when i hear about it. Until I went to visit down Florida, and took the car out for an oil change when waiting for a light - the car took off and I almost hit the guy in front of me. Can't blame her now for "pedal mixup". Defective equipment.
The idle jumped to about 1400 rpm when the AC compressor cycled on. With the V8 that was enough torque to overcome light brake pressure. Then I researched this trying to fix or pre- program it and found there have been major issues on the idle control stepper motor on the Caddy 4.5L FWD engine. Senile stepper motor.

She live in a closed community and I told her she could drive inside the gated community to the club house and to the pool. Then, I lined up a car service to take her shopping. She actually enjoyed the company. Made good friends with her driver, Bubba. He helped with other elderly issues that crop up. - Ken
 
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