Comments on: Elderly, teens, and driving

By: Jill

Jill — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:32:54 +0000

On two separate occasions I was “bumped” by elderly drivers in Florida as a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Both times the drivers apologized and said they didn’t see me, but the second one made eye contact and waived me in front of her car just 2 seconds beforehand!

Since I wasn’t hurt, I just let it go. But, in retrospect, I should have called the cops on the second one – she was clearly senile and needed her drivers license revoked. It’s hard to come down on well-meaning old people, but it needs to be done for public safety.

By: Miguelito

Miguelito — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:37:39 +0000

This is an issue that’s close to home for some of us.. well, all of us eventually as we’ll get there too (hopefully we’ll live that long).

My own grandfather, who’s 86 now, is getting pretty bad. Enough so that his brother (about 10 years younger IIRC) even said he didn’t think he should be driving anymore after visiting this last Thanksgiving and riding with him once. Thankfully my grandmother, who’s a few years younger then him, is still very sharp and does almost all the driving normally. You can’t even start to bring up the topic with him though.. he’ll get pissed off, just like you say. Part of me does fear that he’s going to eventually hurt himself, or someone else, though.

By: 79 Is Too Old For A Driver’s Test « Blog Entry « Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:15:20 +0000

[...] elderly driver killed Cassy Fiano’s brother and it pisses me off worse than if it had been by a drunk driver. Why? Because we all are going to [...]

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:26:26 +0000

Yes, this is a tough issue. There is an elderly man who lives in my town, he has no family here. He comes into my office every morning for a cup of coffee and to fill me in on what is going on up and down Main Street. I’ve helped him out a time or two moving furniture and helping him get medical assistance through the VA. A few months ago his car broke down, and he kept asking me to help him fix it. The poor guy can’t walk without a cane, and even then he can’t walk very straight. He has no business driving, but he doesn’t want to hear about that, and got very upset when I finally came clean and told him I wasn’t going to help him fix his car because I didn’t want any share of the responsibility if he had an accident. He took the bus for awhile, but finally found somebody to fix his car for him, and now he’s driving again. He still comes in every morning for coffee, and still tells me to go to hell whenever I tell him he shouldn’t be driving. It’s a tough situation, and there’s not much that can be done about it.

By: BobM

BobM — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:10:05 +0000

My thought is to eliminate the age requirement altogether. There's something to be said for having drivers of all ages be periodically retested. ["What? What do you mean I can's watch a movie on my portable DVD player, drink some coffee, talk on my cellphone, and read a book while driving?" When did they put in that rule?"] In PA driver's license renewals are four years; having to take a half a day to visit the driver testing center would be a PIA, but not such a big deal.

By: Nancy from Ohio

Nancy from Ohio — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:56:07 +0000

I think the best people to determine what needs to be tested are public safety officials and geriatricians. Then the rest of us need to be vocal and stand behind our legislators to get a bill passed. I get sick and tired of hearing that our lawmakers won’t do this and that out of fear of being voted out of office. Hey guys, wake up! It’s not supposed to be a full-time job! Do what’s right for cryin’ out loud! (Sorry about all the exclamation points; this sort of thing aggravates me.)

Cassy, this is about the third time I visited your site and you just continue what you’re doing, I like it.

By: William

William — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:51:11 +0000

I think you were being too nice with the age of 79. I think it needs to be 65 (standard retirement age) and I think that they need to be made to completely retake the test on a yearly basis. That includes the written test, eye sight test and driving test. Now, I am sure that plenty of seniors would just stop renewing their driver’s licenses after a time, but I bet it would remove a lot of problem drivers from the road.

And yes, that means that when I get to be 65 I would have to start doing this. I know that, and am willing to do so.

I also think that going 6 years between driver’s license renewals is too long. Here in Oklahoma, I can renew my license every 6 years without question. Wow. Maybe they need to have it so that every other renewal you have to retake the driving test or something.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:45:30 +0000

The problem lies with exactly *what* to test. The debate is still open as to exactly how senior citizens should be tested and what they should be tested for. It’s also absolutely correct to say that their political lobbying groups such as the AARP are steadfastly against it. To them, it’s viewed as taking away their freedoms and restricting their rights.
Notice that many liberals seem to have no problem lobbying against senior citizens buying firearms, using their reflexes as an example of why they shouldn’t be allowed to buy guns.