POLICE must have the power to suspend the driving licences of people considered too dangerous to drive, a former road policing chief insists.
Chief Insp Richard Phillibrown spoke out after a teenage boy was knocked off his bike by a 92-year-old woman in Wivenhoe.
Officers persuaded the women to surrender her licence.
Mr Phillibrown is leading calls from Essex Police for a change in the law to allow police to temporarily suspend a licence if they think somebody should not be driving. The motorist would be able to apply, within a few days, to make a case to have their suspension lifted.
Officers are supporting the change in the law after Cassie McCord, 16, was killed by a car driven by Colin Horsfall, 87, from Rowhedge, as she stood on the pavement in Head Street, Colchester, last February. Three days earlier police asked Mr Horsfall, 87, from Tiptree, to surrender his licence because they were concerned about his ability to drive following a minor accident in High Woods.
Mr Horsfall refused. Three months after the crash involving Cassie, he died of his injuries.
Mr Phillibrown said: “In my view, this was an entirely preventable position.
“This law change is not specifically about elderly drivers. It is about people without the physical or mental acuity to drive a vehicle.
“It is not about giving the police the power to remove a licence, but having it suspended pending a court case very soon after, which makes a lot of sense. Cassie’s death was preventable.”
He said the number of road deaths and serious injuries had fallen by about 30 per cent in five years. However, nationally about 3,000 people were killed every year.
He added: “At the moment if we have questions about someone’s driving, all we can do is report the details to the DVLA.
“The expectation is people will take our advice, but we do not have the power to make them.”
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