I almost didn’t write this week’s column, because yesterday, as I was reading my newspaper, drinking coffee and enjoying a blueberry muffin  – that course I took in multi-tasking has paid off – the following item made me choke on the muffin and almost drown in coffee as it sprayed out of my nose…

“The oldest person in Wales to hold a full driving licence is 104-years-old and there are more than 250,000 people aged 70 or over who have a licence, including 12 over 100 years of age.”

Before my readers with grey, white or notta-lotta hair get ready to dip their pens in green ink and send me hate mail (I passed all their previous letters to The Editor because no one ever writes to him) if they read on, they’ll see I’m not being ‘ageist’.

In fact, if I had a hat I’d take it off to anyone still driving at 100 and over because they must be extremely competent.

I say this because motorists over 70 have to renew their licence every three years and older drivers are legally required to declare whether they are fit to drive.

The rules seem pretty stringent, because more than 3,000 drivers in Wales aged 70 or over have had their driving licence revoked or refused in the last three years due to a medical condition.

However, a poll conducted by the insurance industry revealed that 45% of Welsh drivers disagree with how the law currently stands.

Nearly half of them (presumably individuals for whom the age of 70 is many years away) called for older drivers to retake their driving test as well as renew their licence every three years.

Those questioned were obviously unaware that, according to the AA, it’s actually drivers under 24 who are more likely to have an accident.

So, why not apply the same argument about retaking a driving test to 20-year-olds if they passed their test when they were 17?

Having digested the article, along with the remains of the blueberry muffin, I found an even more surprising fact.

In 2015, the number of drivers over 100 years old on our roads numbered 200.

Think about that.

If every one of them passed their test at the average age of, say, 20, it means that between them…get this…those 200 centenarians have 16,000 years driving experience!

Aha! Now you’ve just sprayed your coffee through your nose!