Hanging up the car keys for good: the decision to stop driving is complicated, but are age-based restrictions the answer?

‘I didn’t want to be a burden’ … some older people make the decision to stop driving themselves while others have their licence revoked. Photograph: coldsnowstorm/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Hiding car keys and deflating the car’s tyres were some of the steps Melbourne woman Beth Nielsen took to prevent her grandfather from getting behind the wheel in the final years of his life.

Nielsen’s grandfather had been diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2016 but remained determined to drive. Some nights he would sleep with his car keys under his pillow.