like I said, everyone thinks there should be another law but be careful what you wish for.
My dad was 88 and still driving fine. At least until my step mother slipped him a mickey unknowingly to “calm him down” and reported him. With friends like that. Former step mother. So the doctor had to certify him and he had to take his behind the wheel test again, which he passed. Some folks just need to learn to mind their own business and leave people alone.
You know, if its snowing or raining you slow down. If your eye sight or reactions are not quite the same as it was when you were 25, you maybe slow down a little or restrict the roads you travel on.
You’re probably correct, but I have never done this, and I have reached the ripe old age of 69.
If I did do it, I think that I would seriously consider turning in my driver’s license.
Perhaps I should add that I have not had an accident-- of even the most minor nature–since 1970.
Older people need to stop driving eventually, and it is up to them and their loved ones to determine when. My father in law has dementia and can’t find his way around as well as he used to. He can’t go anywhere new and has increasing problems going where he has been before. His wife is almost always in the car and we don’t want either of them or anyone else to get hurt in an accident. Between the MIL and my wife (his daughter), they have convinced him to take it easy and now to give up driving almost anywhere. They point out the problems he has had with heavy doses of love, and it seems to have worked. He is 88 and only in the last 6 to 8 months deteriorated to the point that he should stop driving.
This is compiled from 2008-2010 data and is similar to others I’ve seen. Once past about 70 accidents increase to nearly match the 24 year olds. Also key is that older folks don’t drive nearly as much so their share of the total accidents is pretty low.
Actually, NHTSA studies show that drivers over 65 have the highest accident rate per 100 million miles driven. Old drivers take much shorter trips and there are far fewer of them than 16-20 year old drivers. I do not support taking away licenses simply because people age. I simply support fair testing for ALL drivers that removes people from the road when they no longer have sufficient minimum skills to drive safely. This can happen when they are 35 or 85. And I still contend that many older drivers cause accidents behind them that they safely drive away from. My dad at 80 years of age is exactly the kind of driver that merges without looking and will eventually cause others to wreck when they try to avoid him as he safely putters down the road.
The chart you showed is useless because it simply shows the overall percent of accidents per demographic, does not compensate for the shrinking population of the aging drivers, does not relate the accident rate to miles driven, and does not cover the 65 + age range where accident rates per 100 million miles driven starts to rise then soar.
Yikes 3 more years, wonder if my insurance rates will go up. Mom at 88 gave up driving, through her choice though sis and I had discussed pulling her licenses on and off for a few years, failing eyesight, not scary to ride with her, but drove into a snowbank and got stuck in a parking lot, New mantra, gas on right brake on left. Guess a tattoo on the back of my hands right and left might be needed.
the_same_mountainbike:
That chart lacks sufficient resolution. All the “fogies” are grouped into “59+.” I’d like to see it broken down further…youngsters are broken down into 3-year increments. IMHO, it looks like a graph designed to produce a desired outcome.
I continue to support a driver classification system that makes an effort to recognize drivers limitations and restrict drivers to operating vehicles within their limitations.
Good luck getting a legislative sponsor on that one. Take a look at the national demographics and see where the voting power is. One clue-it’s not with the 30 year old and unders. I’d like to see trucks and buses off the road during rush hours too but I’m not continuing to beat my head against the wall.
Call me after you first get the chronic drunks, junkies, street racers, those with numerous citations for things like “failure to stop” and “failure to yield” violations, and texters off the roads permanently. And the car thieves and carjackers with criminal records longer than their arms that take cops on high speed chases. Then, if accident rates are still too high, I might support focusing on creating additional hurdles for old people to have to jump in order to drive to the corner store. Old people get targeted in these discussions because they’re easy to target.
I get tired of “let’s get the old people off the roads” when we allow chronic drunk drivers to remain on the roads forever despite repeated DUI arrests, even in many cases after they kill someone. For the record, I felt this way long before I got old.
Just recently I got a ride with my folks who took me out to eat about 5 miles from where I live on the highway. My father of 80 years immediately pulls into the right hand travel lane of the highway/freeway without riding the shoulder the full length to get up to speed to merge. I ask why and he tells me that’s just the way he drives. My mother of 78 years tells me they didn’t learn how to merge onto highways/freeways back in the 50s because so few existed.
Driving home, she takes the wheel and drives for over an hour on the back roads since my father can’t drive at night due to the oncoming headlight glare.
At least now I know from their perspective the thinking of why some old people just blindly pull out into traffic forcing others to slow down significantly or stop because they can’t merge properly. The worst is getting to the end of an onramp and finding someone stopped completely! Glad I drive a V8 for accelerating out into the highway/freeway traffic.
I was just in the license branch renewing a sticker, and the older gentleman at the vision machine was being helped by the employee (No sir, that’s a G not an O, I not L…).
@OldcarsRbest True story:
Last month I went to the Secretary of State/DMV/License Branch to get a new sticker. It was crowded as could be, all chairs full!
I walked in and upon seeing the crowd (unusual for our small town) I exclaimed, “Whoa! What’s going on in here today?!” All eyes turned to me as I reached to tear-off a “take-a-number” tab from the little dispenser stand.
At the same time, I yanked the tab so it would tear off, but I accidently jerked the entire roll (had to be several hundred tabs long) out of the machine and it hit the floor, spinning. It got traction and took off across the floor between the spectators.
I should have been embarrassed, but it was so funny that I announced that it just hadn’t been my day (holding in a laugh), as I walked across the room, rolled up the ribbon and tried to reinstall it, and took the first available seat, right next to a Sheriff’s Deputy. CSA
I got my first glasses at age 49. I could suddenly read road signs at night and cars a ways ahead of me with 2 tail lights no longer looked like 1963 Impalas with 6. Two years later my license was due for renewal. I told the DMV clerk that I now needed a corrective lenses restriction. He insisted I take the vision test because I might pass it which I of course didn’t. Bureaucracy at it’s finest.
I could be wrong, but I think our testers are required to test everyone. It makes imposing the restriction based purely on objective criteria reducing the possibility of subjectivity.
I needed glasses up until just before I retired… when I had my cataract surgery.
