Should Grandma and Grandpa be driving?

As the “baby boomer” generation ages into senior citizens, the retesting of drivers when they reach a certain age has become an enormous issue in society. Many argue that the retesting will take away the senior’s rights. “Advocacy groups for the elderly urge states not to overreact to each incident, noting that accidents happen in every age group and that taking away an older person's license could rob them of their independence. ’The issue is not age; it has to do with the person's physical and mental limitations, and that goes beyond age,’ said Beverly Moore of Illinois' AARP.” (FindLaw.com)

However, others think that the retesting is necessary to keep everyone on the roadways safe, including the senior citizen, and argue that it is common for a person’s eyesight and reaction time are reduced as they age. “Older individuals are more likely than younger people to experience health impairments and changes in functioning that affect their driving skills and may put them at increased risk for being involved in accidents.” (AARP.org Policy Book)
Recent deadly accidents, including an 84-year-old Illinois woman who drove through an elementary school cafeteria and killed an 8-year-old boy when on her way to the local senior center for a driving class, an 89-year-old California man who drove through a farmer’s market in 2003 and killed 10 people, but was recently sentenced to five-years probation because he was too sick to go to prison, and an 89-year-old New York man who also plowed through an outdoor market and injured 10 people, have pushed the question of retesting seniors to the forefront of the public’s mind. (New York State Statistics)

Many people, if asked, would likely respond that one of the most dangerous groups of drivers is senior citizens, along with teenagers. However, this is not true, according to the statistics. “Nationally, in 1995 senior citizens accounted for:
5% of all people injured in traffic crashes;
13% of all traffic fatalities;
13% of all vehicle occupant fatalities; and
18% of all pedestrian fatalities.” (New York State Statistics)
Furthermore, the statistics also, “show that in two-vehicle fatal crashes involving an older and a younger driver, it is 3.1 times as likely that the vehicle driven by the older person will be struck. “ (New York State Statistics)

In New Jersey, the statistics are different than the national average. “In New Jersey, the number of senior citizens involved in fatal crashes has climbed in recent years even as the overall number of fatal crashes has dipped. Seniors in New Jersey have the highest fatal crash rate of any age group, measured by miles driven.” (Driving Safe.org)

In order to make the roads safe for everyone, a retesting program should be instituted with drivers over the age of 70 will be retested every 5 years. The test should entail a test of response time, using the average time it takes a traffic light to turn from green to red as a guide. Also, the senior drivers should also be taken on a road test, in a real world environment, to test their practical knowledge of the rules of the road, their ability to respond to the changing environmental factors on the road, and to test their ability to interact with other drivers.

Senior drivers should be retested every time they have an incident, but not only for accidents. They should be tested whenever the police are called because of reckless behavior, inability to keep in their lane, failure to keep right and yield to other drivers, and other actions that make the roads dangerous for both them and the other drivers on the road. For example, take a senior driver who turns on their turn signal a half mile prior to the turn, stops four times in that half mile preparing for the turn, drives at 10-20 m.p.h. below the speed limit but refuse to pull over to let others pass, and then randomly stops in the middle of the road, causing the drivers behind them to stop short, no matter how much room they leave between their car and the senior’s. This senior should be retested since the police were called to intervene and get the driver off of the road in order to make the road safe for others.

If the police are called three times or more, the senior should have their driver’s license turned into a probational license, similar to that given to a teenage driver. They should be limited to driving only during the day, but not during the morning and evening rush hours. A condition to the license is that if the police are called, even once, because of their behavior behind the wheel, the license is taken away with no chance of ever getting it back. Finally, if a senior driver has a fatal accident that can be attributed to being their fault, their license should be taken away permanently.

Not all senior drivers are automatically bad drivers, but not all of them are the safest drivers. Statistics say that the majority of people think of seniors as the most dangerous group on the road, but in terms of fatal accidents, that is not true. However, the statistics do not take into account minor accidents or traffic incidences. If these types of incidences were also taken into account, along with the major traffic accidents, the case for retesting senior citizens would be clear cut: they need to be retested, based on their ability to drive safely.