Senior citizens have been criticized on their driving abilities for many years, and them having driving privileges has been debated for just as long. It is a widely known fact that some of the abilities required for driving become less sharpened with age, such as sight and coordination. Adding some other factors such as Parkinson’s disease and other diseases related to age, and driving abilities are further reduced.
While I feel that it would be unconstitutional to take away the driving privileges of all senior citizens, I do fell that a few extra precautions should be taken when issuing a driver’s license to a senior citizen. First, instead of just renewing their driver’s license every four years, they should be required to take the driving portion of the test also. If they do not pass the test, they do not get their driver’s license renewed. This will help to get the people who are bad drivers off of the road while letting those who are still able to drive keep their license. There are many senior citizens who can still be considered good drivers. They should not be penalized.
Another precaution that should be taken is to require a written statement from their doctor stating that they do not have any medical conditions that either prevent them from driving or restrict them in any way. A person who has Alzheimer’s disease could become disoriented while driving and forget how to get home or forget where they are going. This will make it more likely that they will become distracted and easily cause an auto accident.
One more precaution that could be taken when issuing a driver’s license to a senior citizen is to develop some type of virtual program in which the driver sits in a simulated car, similar to a racing video game in an arcade, and presenting a few situations in which they would be required to think fast. A few of these situations could include, an animal running onto the road, being cut off, or having someone pull out in front of them or trying to turn in front of them. This is a good test of reaction time as well as coordination.
It would be a good idea to test all drivers on these skills, because senior citizens are not the only bad drivers. They are everywhere and they come in all ages. The simulated driving test would be wonderful test for anyone getting their first driver’s license.
I do not think that senior citizens should be the only group of people who are required to take extra tests periodically to determine whether or not they can drive well, it should be something done after being cited for an accident, regardless of age. We all have been driving in our hometowns down the road which has signs posted of a 45 MPH or 55 MPH speed limit sign and we somehow always get stuck behind the eighty year old man who is barely going more than 25 MPH and he is looking around at things that are nowhere on the road and not paying attention to what is going on on the road. The fact that he is going almost twenty miles slower than the speed limit is not only making you more angry than you have ever been, it is dangerous. Going twenty miles under the speed limit can cause an accident because all of the other drivers on the road are going the speed limit, and could easily hit him from behind. Since he is looking around instead of paying attention to his driving, he could swerve into another lane of traffic and get into an accident with a driver who is going the speed limit.
Once again, there are bad drivers everywhere and they come in all ages, but older drivers seem to be oblivious to the fact that they cannot do a lot of the things that they used to, and this includes driving.
