Seniors Driving
Courtney Caldwell, a writer for Road and Travel Magazine, stated in one of her articles that, “My mother, insisted her driving skills were as sharp as ever. However, after a few life-threatening trips to the grocery store as her passenger, I knew she had to stop driving. She was driving dangerously close to the curb, her reaction time was poor and she was missing stop signs and traffic lights. Her driving was so bad that I forbade my 32-year-old adult daughter to ever ride as a passenger with her”. (roadandtravel.com) Ms. Caldwell is referring to her mother, an elderly widow, who must drive, as she has no other means of transportation.
In America today, more and more people are driving each day. Currently, there are more cars on the road now, then at any point in America’s past. With all of this new traffic, more and more accidents occur everyday. The group second most responsible for these accidents is the group of drivers age fifty-five and older. “Currently these people make up twenty five per cent of the driving population, and account for eighteen per cent of current auto accidents”. (aarp.org) With all of these accidents, there is still no restrictions or limitations placed on a person, age fifty-five and over’s license. It is my opinion that, at the least, restrictions should be placed on licenses for all people age fifty-five and older.
Currently across the United States, there are very few laws regarding the elderly and driving. In Florida a new law states that people over the age of sixty-five must pass a road test. Florida is the only state to implement such a measure. With the exception of Florida, every other state still puts its elderly drivers at risk.
John Nelson the president of the American medical association said that, “A woman in her eighties in good health may be a safer driver than her twenty year old grandson who happened to be on pain medication for an injury”.(aarp.org) As we age, our bodies age too, and as a result of that we lose some of the most important senses that we use to drive. The most important sense to drivers is vision. “More then fifty per cent of people age fifty-five and older have some sort of problem with their eyesight”.(aarp.org) These problems can make it difficult to see at night, and it can cause them to have difficulty judging distances. Another useful sense...
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...is program might be successful at teaching senior citizens how to abide by the traffic law, that is all it does. It still does not prevent senior citizens from getting into accidents.
As more and more drivers are on the road each day, we need to be ever cautious of our fellow drivers. One such group of drivers is those who are aged fifty-five and older. Since they are getting older, their ability to drive safely has diminished. Senior citizens are also more likely to be severely injured or killed in an auto accident. By age, they are the second biggest accident group. Studies have proved that the 55 ALIVE driver-training programs were not effective in reducing the number of traffic crashes. Therefore, license restrictions are the answer. The times of day that senior citizens drive and the distances they can drive should be limited. Senior citizens that choose to continue driving should also be made to undergo routine medical exams to test their vision and hearing. An attempt should also be made to expand the ability and lower the cost of public transportation. By doing this, we can protect the lives of our senior citizens, and reduce the number of accidents on the road.
There is a great debate on whether or not the elderly should be able to drive. Most people who have had any encounters with terrible elder drivers would say no way. This is because they have had that one or maybe even two experiences with a not so cautious elderly driver. This experience has caused them to put a stereotype on all elderly people and their driving abilities. After reading and analyzing all four of the elderly women from the four works in A Writer’s Reader. The authors of each have included many different stereotypes of elderly women. Just like the elderly driving ability stereotype is not true for all elderly drivers. The Authors stereotypes are not always true for every elderly woman. The authors are just informing their readers on the many different stereotypes that are floating around.
“Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for American teenagers, accounting for about a third of all deaths in that age group” (Crisp). In actual numbers, motor vehicle crashes kill more than 5,000 teenagers every year (Gregory). These statistics are frightening and have led more than 50 percent of adults to support higher required ages for drivers’ licenses (Gregory). Teenagers, though, say this would be unfair and would make their lives difficult. Meeting the needs of Indiana teenagers while still keeping them and other drivers safe can be accomplished by a more restrictive graduated licensing law.
Federal statistics show that drivers, aged 85 and older, are involved in 3 fatal accidents per day (Davis & DeBarros). Currently in the US, less than half of all states require elderly drivers to appear in person to renew their driver’s licenses. Only two states, Illinois and New Hampshire, require elderly drivers to pass road tests before a new license can be issued. Forcing elderly drivers to appear in person is the only thing that has been scientifically proven to reduce fatal accidents because state employees can visibly analyze these applicants for physical impairments (Davis & DeBarros). Elderly drivers put themselves, and others, at a much higher risk of accidents and death due to lack of abilities caused by the aging process. State legislation, countrywide, should impose laws that are stricter to prevent incidence with drivers 65 and older.
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
The car accidents you see on the roads are most likely caused by an elderly person as they are unaware of their surroundings and what is actually happening on the road. Elderly drivers are not aware of the dangers they put themselves and others into every time they drive. Most elderly take medications that are known to impair driving. Most elderly have trouble turning and have a hard time seeing things correctly, therefore this causes ultimate risks to them and their surroundings. If you have an elderly loved one that is above the age of 80, don’t wait until it’s too late to save your parents and other’s
a plethora amount of car accidents. However, most car accidents are caused by old citizens. Every day, seniors die in a car accident because they don't pay close enough attention to the road. Some elderlies don’t want to give up their keys because their car represents freedom but, they are part of the reason why thousands of people are dead. Seniors citizens are considered a risk on the road because there have been an abundance amount of accidents due to these reasons; the loss of eyesight, the ability to react quickly and the new medication that can cause them to be drowsy.
More than half of our driver’s population is made up of the elderly and is continuing to rise every year. Stricter rules on the elderly in the state of Missouri would not only make the roads safer, but would also decrease our rise in crashes. People have tried to make stricter rules it just always gets ...
There are many reasons why it would be a bad idea to raise the driving age to 21. This dramatic change would definitely also cause many problems. One problem that could possibly arise is that for teens younger than 21, it mig...
In recent years, the legal driving age has become a topic of heated debate. There are many supporters that advocate for raising the legal driving age to eighteen or twenty-one. However, raising the driving age would cause some major problems. Sixteen should remain the legal driving age in most states and areas because the economic burden would be extremely large and the problems related to young drivers would not be adequately solved by simply rising the legal driving age. This essay will outline the reasons why the legal driving age should not be raised and what some of the better choices are instead.
“The Brutal Truth About Teen Driving.” JourneySafe. The Gillian Sabet Memorial Foundation Inc. Web. 29 Apr. 2010.
Again, it makes the headlines; an older driver causes a dangerous automobile crash. As the amount of elderly driving has increased in the past decade, the risk for others to be out on the road has increased. In 2012, there were 36 million licensed older drivers in the United States. (Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation (US)) As a 34% increase from 1999, it has been noted that seniors are driving past their ability by an average of 10 years. (Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation (US)). Elderly continue to drive despite the prominent physiological changes that worsen as they age. The amount of automobile collisions suggests that prevention must occur in order to make the roads safer. By examining older drivers’ medical complications, older drivers must be retested to be able to drive a vehicle.
More than 5,000 teenagers die while driving each year in the United States (Gregory). In my opinion this is due to three different, yet equally important factors. The first factor is that the teenage mind is yet to be fully developed, causing them to make irresponsible and sometimes reckless decisions. The second factor is that the experience of driving has evolved since the original driving age was established in the early 20th century. The third and final aspect to take into consideration would be that driving is the lowest minimum age of any adult restricted activity in the United States. Although, it can be one of the more harmful, not only to the perspective driver but his or her surroundings as well. Taking all three of these factors into account I believe the minimum driving age should be raised to 18 to decrease the accident rate amongst teenagers.
According to federal driving license laws in the United States, the current legal minimum driving age to obtain a restricted driver’s license varies from state from fourteen years, three months in South Dakota to as high as seventeen in New Jersey. Many high school teens by this time are out and about in their vehicles, adjusting and learning the rituals of the road. But, it is also a time when many teens are at higher risk of danger due to many activities teens are bound to do at their age. From drinking under the influence, drug intakes that can affect mental and physical stability and result in mental performance, to the focus level when it comes to the cell phone usage while driving a two ton death machine. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teens aged sixteen to nineteen than among any other age group. It is why insist that the legal driving should be increased at eighteen to twenty-one.
In the 1990's teens would get full licensing and all privileges with little of no testing at all. It wasn’t until 1995 when around twenty states required a learning permit but the system was still very weak, as in teens only had to keep their permit from two to three weeks. Bu somehow, teen drivers was not as dangerous as it is today. Experts say it is mostly because of deadly distractions in and out of the vehicle(Boulard 38).
Whether or not teenagers should be allowed to get their driver 's license at age sixteen is a known topic across the United States. One of the causes for this argument is the number of fatalities caused by young drivers. Evidence shows, “In 2012, 1,875 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 died in motor vehicle crashes and an additional 184,000 young drivers were injured, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” (“Teen Drivers”). Most accidents are caused by young drivers. In the United States of America, citizens may receive their driver’s license at sixteen, if they meet the requirements. Some people argue that sixteen year olds should not be able to receive their driver’s license. Other people argue that sixteen