The Importance Of Driving

The amount of elderly has grown an abundance because the baby Boomer generation has grown up and is now in their later years of life. The amount of traffic accidents has increased as well. This brings to question if elderly driving has anything to do with the increasing number of traffic accidents and if there should be a new requirement on the elderly driving.
People will argue the older generation has years of experience driving. They know the rules of the road and obey the laws; they aren’t speeding or speeding up to make a yellow light. Also, it is believed they are less likely to drive while under the influence of any judgement impairing substance and it is also believed they won’t text and drive.
However, the Centers Disease and Prevention

One of those is as the older a person gets their eyesight diminishes affecting their driving capabilities. Vision loss can happen slowly or suddenly; the person may not even realize or refuses to recognize they are having issues seeing. About one in every three people have eyesight diminishing by the time they are the age 65 and once you turn 60, "a number of eye diseases may develop that can change your vision permanently" ("Adult Vision:”). Therefore, it makes it harder to see road signs, judging distances and speeds, color perception, sight in the dark, and loss of side vision. This would also affect their depth perception ability causing them so not know when to start braking and whether they have time to turn

A shorter attention spanned can cause them to, “feel overwhelmed by all of the signs, signals, pedestrians, and vehicles at intersections” (“Older Drivers”), causing them to be very stressed therefore making driving mistakes more easily, especially in heavy traffic. The decrease in reflexes and reaction time is due to the stiffening or loss of muscles. Therefore, it can make it harder for them to turn their heads to look for other vehicles to change lanes; and stiffening muscles in their ankles will make it so they are unable to switch from the gas to the brake quickly causing them to be unable to stop quickly to avoid hitting another vehicle or any obstacles that may find itself on the road. Also stiffening or weak muscles in their arms can cause them not “to turn the steering wheel quickly” (“Older Drivers”), unable to swerve to avoid anything. All these factors together do not help if an elderly ends up hydroplaning or sliding on ice because they won’t be able to react in time causing them to loss control and possible