Thread: Should Elderly Drivers Lose Their License?

My father-in-law is currently 72 and so far is not too much of a hazard to the other drivers. He does tend to drive too slowly though, especially if yo get him talking about something. I think after 65 years old, drivers should have ti retest every few years.

I know we are going to have a riot on our hands when we finally have to take his keys. That and we will then need to drive him and my mother-in-law to town whenever they need to go, but it is a small price to pay to ensure both their safety and the safety of those on the road.

Me, I hope I am rich and have a limo by the time I cannot drive safely

Well, I'd hate to say take 'em away completely (though I damn sure won't say I don't think it, every now and then.)
You know, cops can check the general public for alcohol. I don't think they can test for medication.

My vote was for the annual exam, though, ta be fair. Haha.

Yeah, I agree with a yearly test for sure. Only, like Seeker said, around the age of 65, perhaps even 60, instead of 70. Of course it's not fair to take away their driving privileges entirely, since there are a lot of elderly drivers who can still drive perfectly, without a problem. But for the safety of themselves and the countless of innocent other lives, a standard test should be issued yearly to make sure that they're keeping up with their eyesight and good driving abilities.

My grandpa is one of those people ... he had a trucking company once, and is a workaholic when it comes to driving. It makes him sick not to drive. He is over 70 now, though ...
Over time, because he doesn't keep his body fit and all he thinks about is driving, they had to remove his left leg. In addition to that his sight got really bad, he barely recognices me when I am standing 10m in front of him.
In the summer of this year he actually managed to put his van on the guard rail in the middle of a four lane road. The lanes merged from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, having a guard rail start in the middle - which he used as a jump ..
Well nobody was hurt except for the car ... but it was really scary how he refused to admit, that he acutally did it .. I mean the car was damaged .. but he refused to admit ...
Old people get weird ..

Dangers are lurking at every corners, that is the price we pay for our modern, civilized world.
I know how eccentric and stubborn can be elderly people because I live with my elderly parents.

But if one looks at a daily behaviour on the roads, for sure that it's the younger generations that need to get a hefty punch on the snout for rudeness and lack of imagination...

Make 'em take a retest. Sure some will grumble about "no respect for the elderly", but it's either that or terrorising roads worldwide.

Living in Michigan here...

My dad is 88, has cataracts and has NO BUSINESS driving - and still has his license. My mother is a couple years younger, has lost most of her reasoning ability, hasn't driven in probably five years, yet STILL HAS HER LICENSE.

On the other hand, one of my uncles is in his mid 90's and still sees, reacts and drives perfectly fine. (He also still plays golf a couple times each week - walking the course.)

After a certain age, I think a person should have annual OKs from physician and optometrist, and have to pass a real, live driving test. I'm not fond of gumment intervention in our freedoms, but this is an area that is as deadly as any other impairment when taking control of a couple tons of steel and iron capable of doing staggering amounts of damage and taking many lives in one fell swoop.

Hmm, PJ, that's very interesting. The State of Michigan must be very lenient with handing out driver's licenses.

I live in MI too, and I had an older lady - not even elderly, maybe in her 60's - come into the hospital where I work with her cat the other day. She said that her daughter told her that the cat was losing hair on it's forelegs, but since she couldn't see it because of her "vision impairment", she thought she'd bring it in. The cats forelegs were BALD!! How in the hell she couldn't see that - she was obviously blind as a bat - and the kicker, she drove herself to the clinic! You could tell by looking at her eyes that she was nearly blind - and certainly legally blind - but she still had a license and was driving!

That's reckless endangerment, imo - if you know full well you can't see well enough to drive safely, I think it's completely reckless and selfish to put other people's lives at risk and drive anyway. And I really do understand the whole keeping their freedom and independence thing - I would want to keep my license too - but if I knew I couldn't see well - I sure as hell wouldn't feel comfortable behind the wheel, seeing as I could not only kill other people, but kill myself as well. It's just not worth it.

Old people on the road is like letting monkeys fly an airplane.

Sometimes. Anual tests, yes please. Also a test that focusses on reaction speed and such. If people can only drive 10 miles an hour (on the freeway), they just shouldn't drive.

Not only do the elderly have trouble with vision, hearing, reaction time, etc.. but also many are diagnosed with some type of cognitive impairment such as dementia. I believe some type of annual testing is necessary (ears, eyes) and with a diagnosis of dementia comes an automatic loss of license. The number of folks with Alzheimer's is increasing and as the baby boomer population becomes older this number is expected to be a great deal higher. What about the elderly with Parkinson's Disease?... and I'm sure there are other conditions also...

octoberchild

Yes, I completely agree, octoberchild - dementia or cognitive dysfunction can be even more dangerous than loss of vision/hearing.

My great gradmother (rest her soul) was 94 and started losing her mind so much that she would wander out into the front yard thinking it was the bathroom. And she still had her license too! Scary thought.

Originally Posted by Burns

Yes, I completely agree, octoberchild - dementia or cognitive dysfunction can be even more dangerous than loss of vision/hearing.
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We had a little old man that lived near us with this problem. He would get out and forget how to get back home. Really kind of sad.

Oh, btw, this is totally off the subject but I love the Thanksgiving Pilgrim and Indian pic! Wait 'til Callie(my daughter) sees it! Girl, you do love animals!


Good discussion on the elderly driving issues---it would take some legislative work but be worth it for the safety of the elderly person and others.

octoberchild

Originally Posted by Seeker

We had a little old man that lived near us with this problem. He would get out and forget how to get back home. Really kind of sad.
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My own mother was diagnosed with "mild dementia" a few years back. She immediately gave up the car keys. But it's not that easy for some folks to do and they give their caretakers hell trying to get the keys away from them. Perhaps it would make it easier to reason with them if the caretaker would be able to say "Listen, Mom, it's the law, you cannot drive anymore." Maybe it would make it easier, just maybe.

octoberchild

Originally Posted by octoberchild

My own mother was diagnosed with "mild dementia" a few years back. She immediately gave up the car keys. But it's not that easy for some folks to do and they give their caretakers hell trying to get the keys away from them. Perhaps it would make it easier to reason with them if the caretaker would be able to say "Listen, Mom, it's the law, you cannot drive anymore." Maybe it would make it easier, just maybe.[/b]

Yeah, I think you're right - it would make it easier to make them give up the keys if you had the law on your side.

I think one of the reasons they don't pass something like this (making elderly driver's take yearly tests) is because senior citizens make up a huge portion of the voting population, and that would be a huge slam to any politician trying to gain office if he's trying to limits their rights.

i voted taking exam every year. but it should be more like taking the driving part of the exam.

Originally Posted by Burns

I think one of the reasons they don't pass something like this (making elderly driver's take yearly tests) is because senior citizens make up a huge portion of the voting population, and that would be a huge slam to any politician trying to gain office if he's trying to limits their rights.[/b]

And they've got to be able to drive themselves to the polls so they can vote, too!! I hadn't thought about it, Burns, but they do make up a large portion of the voting population...no wonder nothing's been done.....Politics............

octoberchild

To be honest people suck at driving in general. Theres no reason to pick on the elderly. They should just make everyone retake the drivers test every 5 years.

Originally Posted by Alric

To be honest people suck at driving in general. Theres no reason to pick on the elderly. They should just make everyone retake the drivers test every 5 years.[/b]

Elderly people's bodies change a lot more in 1 year's time than a 30 year old's body. Physiologically, things change in a much shorter amount of time in the elderly. So I think it's a good idea that everyone should have to retake a driving test every 5 years, but I think elderly people should have to take it yearly after a certain age - just because of the rapid changes their bodies go through at that age.

Same can be said for anyone. You normally don't "change" quickly over a year because your old, you change quickly because theres something wrong with you. Obviously the older you are the higher chance something is going to break but the same can happen at any age.

Maybe it would be a valid option if the DMV wasn't a huge pain in the butt. Before you tell someone else to go there every single year for the rest of their life, you have to ask yourself would you go there every year for the rest of your life? Heck no! No one wants to. Forget that, I am young but I am not that stupid. I am thinking ahead here. I don't want to spend 30-40 years of my life going to the DMV every single year. Then theres always the slippery slope arguement how old is is old? Yea we make that a law, then soon enough everyone will have to renew it yearly. Yea just what I need.

Of course they make you PAY every time you go as well. Right I need to spend a $1000 over the course of my life to keep renewing it every single year. No way. I will take my chances with the old people killing me. We already have people half asleep, people on drugs, drunks, and just plain bad drivers, driving around who are likely to kill me. Another group doesn't add much to the risk.

I am surprised theres no old forum memeber in here yelling at you all. Seriously if we were talking about people younger than 25 taking the exam every year, there would be cursing and stuff. Young drivers are the worst so they have to be watched carefully right? Best way to do that is have them come in every year and get checked out. Yea right, I DON'T THINK SO!

Originally Posted by Alric

I am surprised theres no old forum memeber in here yelling at you all. Seriously if we were talking about people younger than 25 taking the exam every year, there would be cursing and stuff. Young drivers are the worst so they have to be watched carefully right? Best way to do that is have them come in every year and get checked out. Yea right, I DON'T THINK SO!
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We're all gonna be there, and sooner than we think.

Seriously - I had originally written in reply that everybody should simply have more rigorous tests. That's a slippery slope though, and it presupposes that nobody can be trusted. That's not how our government here is supposed to work. If it were applied to driving, it would then start being related to other things. Soon we'd need licenses to head to the pub with annual screenings for alcoholism.

It is the nature of government to usurp liberty.

From my observation, 16 year olds in general have no business driving either, but you have to start somewhere. I certainly had no business driving at 16.

This problem of the elderly driving pretty much didn't exist even 50 years ago. Do you realize what an amazing thing it is that these WWII generation people are still with us and living on their own and wanting to drive? Living into your 80s was exceptional a half-century ago. Now it is routine. Medical science is an awesome thing in some regards... but society is slower adapting than the changes that are coming.

Blatantly give them an annual test.

They have worse eyesight, worse co-ordination, slower reactions, possible dementia, maybe alzheimers, a lot of them drive way too slow which can be dangerous, can't think of anymore negatives right now, but I'm sure there are some!

Old people have the same rights we do. Making them come in every year is just harassment and saying all old people should be punished for the few who are irresponsible is just plain discrimination. It sure is easy to tell other people what to do isn't it?

I wonder, how many people here are for legalizing marijuana? Come on seriously now, how many are there? Now why should we trust you to use marijuana responsibly if you can't trust the eldery in poor health to stop driving when they are no longer able to? Yea an elderly person hit others, but I could easily find a case where someone who was high hit someone else as well. So should all user of marijuana be punished for the few who are irresponsible? Hmm it seems like 95% of this forum thinks so.

What a bunch of hypocrites. You complain when the government is against you and is trying to tell you what to do but then when its your turn you overwhelmingly vote to do the same to others.

Originally Posted by Alric

What a bunch of hypocrites. You complain when the government is against you and is trying to tell you what to do but then when its your turn you overwhelmingly vote to do the same to others.
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Ok... so to extend your point to its logical conclusion, we have no business licensing drivers at all. Or doctors. Or pilots. Or anything else for that matter - as licensing is how society, via the government, controls these activities. Why should police be the only ones allowed to pull over people and ticket them anyway? Anybody should be able to do it, and make arrests if necessary as well - but then that presupposes LAWS, which are nothing more than the government telling us what to do.

Caveat emptor the next time you need brain surgery.