An elderly man who was still driving after having five heart attacks caused a car accident that injured three when he suffered a sixth while behind the wheel.
Former lorry driver Peter, 75, was forced to leave his job when he had his first major heart attack aged 50, but continued to drive his own car until the accident, which injured three including a 58-year-old woman whose arm and leg were broken.
Peter, who appeared on the Channel 4 show 999: What’s Your Emergency?, said he finally swapped his car for a mobility scooter when it dawned on him that people could have died in the smash.
He said on the show he was ‘stubborn’ and didn’t ‘want to be told’ to give up driving, but admitted ‘if those people had died it would have been on my conscience for the rest of my life’.
A police officer who attended the incident near Bath has said he believes all drivers should have to take another test on turning 75.
Peter, 75, had already suffered five heart attacks and blacked out at the wheel when he suffered a sixth
He caused a car accident on a main road which injured three people and left one person with life-changing injuries

Peter was reluctant to give up driving despite his declining health, however he heeded the police warnings and chose to stop
PC Phil Bridge has called for ‘mandatory retesting for over-75’s’.
‘If he has no warning that these blackouts are occurring then he is just an accident waiting to happen,’ PC Bridge said in the programme.
‘He cannot be allowed to drive if he is that prone to heart attacks, the only problem is that we don’t have anything in place at the moment that regulates that.
‘I think there should be a mandatory retesting of drivers every few years from the age of 75, there has to be some sort of culpability.
‘I know it’s going to be difficult for the DLVA to put out a new process but our lives are worth it. There’s got to be thousands of people that have to be driving on the streets that shouldn’t have a license. Any one can be a ticking time bomb.’
Peter explained how he had suffered one major heart attack and four smaller ones since turning 50 – with the latest being his second in seven months – and had never had a car accident before.

PC Phil Bridge believes that elderly people over the age of 75 should face a mandatory driving test every few years to check on their ability


In the end Peter decided to hand in his license and opt for something slower. He swapped his car for a mobility scooter
He reflected on the collision: ‘I didn’t go out that day to have that accident or have that heart attack.
‘If someone told me that I had to give up driving I wouldn’t take any notice of them, because no one tells me what to do. I am very stubborn.’
But the pensioner finally heeded the police warning to hand over his license and decided to opt for an 8mph mobility scooter.
‘I still think about those people, they must have been really shocked. If those people had died that would have been on my conscience for the rest of my life,’ he added.
999: What’s Your Emergency returns next Monday on Channel 4 at 9pm