Highway Code

Accidents on the wrong side of the road, driving licence renewal rules for the elderly

After the age of 80, biennial medical examination. Too few or too many? It depends on the cases. And on the thoroughness of the doctors, in a system of poor controls

of Regulations and Taxes

5 August 2025

4' min read

4' min read

Faced with the media uproar over the tragic highway accidents of the past few days involving vehicles driven by the elderly, one naturally wonders whether the rules on driving licence renewals beyond a certain age are adequate. In reality, the problem is much more complex: the adequacy of the entire system of checks and the effectiveness of thedriving assistance technologies, which are increasingly present and developed in modern vehicles (also due to obligations established by EU regulations), should be assessed.

These topics are too vast to be dealt with in one article. Let us limit ourselves to the problems associated with driving licence renewal.

The biennial visits

Currently, licence holders (of any type) over the age of 80 years must renew their licence every two years (Article 126(6) of the Highway Code). This frequency was introduced with the mini-reform of the Highway Code 15 years ago (law 120/2010): until then, for the most common licences (essentially those in categories A for motorbikes and B for cars), there was only an obligation to renew every three years for those over the age of 80 (still in force today for holders of A and B licences who have not yet turned 80).

At the time politicism was stirred up over the fact that closer obligations were imposed on individuals who were not infrequently still in an enviable state of health. And they were even heavier obligations than the ordinary ones: one could not simply renew one's licence at the ASL (or in the medical offices of the railways or in the agencies and driving schools where the doctors authorised by Article 119 operate), but had to go to the local Medical Commission (MCL).

With time, it was the shortcomings of the system that 'fixed everything': given the dwindling number of doctors in the LMICs and the long time it took to obtain an appointment, it was decided (Decree 5/2012) to return to renewal in the ordinary way, leaving only the reduced two-year cadence of the mini-reform.

In any case, much depends on the scrupulousness of the doctors and daily experience shows that anything can happen. Thus, there are elderly people in at least apparently acceptable conditions who are denied the renewal of their driving licence or made very difficult, and others who appear to be in a worse condition but are allowed to keep their driving licence. In the latter cases, in fact, it is not uncommon for the vigilance of the parents, who are called upon to mediate between the reasons of safety and the risk of plunging the elderly into a depressive state, to be decisive.

HGVs

A problem within a problem is that of heavy goods vehicles: on the one hand there is the need for stricter requirements to limit as far as possible the risk of accidents, which if they involve these vehicles more often have serious consequences, and on the other hand there is the shortage of drivers from which the haulage sector suffers.

At present, in summary, for lorries (category C licences) the maximum age stops at 65 years, which can only be extended from one biennium to the next if one passes an examination by the MCL and in any case only to drive trucks and articulated lorries for the transport of goods with a full load weight limited to 20 tonnes.

For buses (category D licences), between the ages of 60 and 68, it is necessary to present oneself annually at the MCL in order to obtain a certificate of competence for driving buses, trucks, articulated and articulated passenger vehicles. If you do not present yourself at the MCL and opt for a 'normal' renewal, you can only drive light vehicles (those requiring B category licences).

Drugs

Apart from all this, when assessing a person's fitness to drive one should also consider the possible influence of the substances contained in the drugs they habitually take. A problem that has arisen overwhelmingly in recent months with the amendments to the Road Code (law 177/2024), including the one concerning drivers who use drugs: the offence (Article 187) now occurs simply because there are narcotic or psychotropic substances in the body, even if the person concerned is not in an altered state (required by the previous version of Article 187).

Among the problems associated with this change is the fact that such substances may also have a therapeutic use, regulated by rules that now have to be coordinated with the new Article 187 of the Code. This issue is so delicate that so far the competent ministries have tried to dilute it with a circular and the formation of a technical study table.

These problems are all the more keenly felt by the elderly when one considers that the number of drugs one takes habitually or at least with some frequency increases with advancing age.