It seems
that people always talk about wanting to get the licenses of elderly people taken
away because of how bad of drivers they are.
Sometimes, but not always, they’re right. But it’s not their fault. With aging come certain physical and mental
changes that make it more difficult for an older person to drive.
As people
age, some of the physical changes that take place are decline in eyesight and
hearing, decline in reflexes, and stiffness in the back and neck. These can obviously lead to trouble, because
you need to be able to see and hear well enough while you’re driving, as well
as being able to turn your head to check for cars while performing a turn or a
lane change.
Another
thing that could cause the elderly to drive poorly is their medications. According to the article “Age &
Driving…”: “Certain medications or combinations of medications can affect
senses and reflexes.” So it’s not
necessarily the older person’s fault if they’re a “bad driver.”
As shown above, there are many
physical and medical reasons as to why they would be. However, that doesn’t justify them being on
the road. If they are having problems
like this, they should get evaluated by a doctor to make sure they’re still
capable of driving because it can be very dangerous. For example, in the article from the Westport
News website titled “Should Elderly Drivers Be Retested?”: “…a 72-year-old New
Canaan man faced vehicular manslaughter charges for allegedly striking and
killing a motorcyclist last fall. In Darien, an 89-year-old man turned himself
in after allegedly hitting and severely injuring 15-year-old pedestrian on Hoyt
Street. He claimed he didn't know he hit anything until he saw the accident
reported in the paper the next day.” This
raises some red flags, for me at least. I
don’t know if it was because they were just bad drivers, if they just weren’t
capable anymore and needed to be reevaluated, or both. If it is the second one, then we can do
something. If we are able to get people
at a certain age to be evaluated regularly on their driving skills and physical
and mental condition (say, sixty-five or seventy) and have their licenses
confiscated when they’re deemed unsafe by a professional, then I feel like our
roads would be a lot safer. Sure there
are a lot of younger drivers that get into a lot of trouble, but I feel it’s
easier to be able to take care of the elderly first. Besides, the younger people have plenty of
restrictions on their driver’s licenses as it is.
It’s difficult what age to put the
restrictions, evaluations, or confiscation at because the elderly still do need
to go places such as the pharmacy to refill prescriptions or sometimes just to
get outside so they aren’t just bumming around their house all alone. They might get angry and even feel betrayed
if their family alerts them of their driving tendencies, so you need to be
careful in telling them that they should get evaluated or stop driving. But it’s necessary to do so, to help our
roads become a safer place.