With over 31 million registered people on the road across all of America over the age of 64, traffic collisions with these drivers are inevitable (McGee 1). With the fastest growing group of the nation's population, the issue of whether a driving license should be withdrawn and in what circumstances will only become more pressing. At some point, there must be a system of precautions established in order to help the elderly or remove them from the road for good.
In 1992, George Russell Weller, who is 90, rammed his car through a marketplace, killed nearly a dozen people, wounded more than 60 people and sparked a heated discussion about potentially deadly elderly drivers (Tresniowski 1). Weller is arranged to be tried on 10 vehicle homicide charges. Weller pled not guilty, A christian grandfather with an outstanding driving history, claimed he had mistaken the brake and gas pedal (Tresniowski 1). A growing problem draws attention to the devastation it caused: dangerous elderly drivers. Among drivers 65 and older, accident rates in the U.S. have skyrocketed higher than any other group. The number of deaths involving elderly drivers increased by 14 percent between 1990 and 1997 (Tresniowski 1).
In 2018, an elderly driver Reportedly made a U-turn on the highway and for several miles went the wrong way down the north side before destroying two cars (Matheson). State police said Foxborough's 84-year-old Arnold Reda was driving a Toyota Camry north on I-495 when he reportedly turned back near Exit 13 in Mansfield and started driving south on the northbound lanes, striking a four-person Mercedes-Benz GL450 and a two-person Lincoln Town Car just north of Exit 9. At the crash site, Reda was pronounced dead. Five of the six passengers in the other two vehicles were taken to non-life-threatening hospitals with injuries (Matheson).
With these two major vehicle accidents in mind, what is the general cause of these elderly drivers such poor decision making? A reoccurring opinion among analysts is that older residents are more likely to have eye problems, sluggish reflexes, and/or poor hearing, rendering them more susceptible to mistakes when driving a motor vehicle (DiLascio). One solution that might help prevent the rate of vehicle accidents is receiving an assessment from a professional. An occupational therapist or licensed driver rehab expert can give a thorough assessment of the driving ability and suggest vehicle adjustments or techniques to keep whoever on the road if necessary (Segal). A professional evaluation may also help families to convince their elderly loved ones to retire from driving all together.
Sadly, aging is something that no one can stop, but when driving can be too hard, there are certain indicators that will help communicate when to hang up the keys. This may include loss of the ability to hear, like not being able to hear emergency sirens or horns, difficulty with their ability to remember certain driving routes to get home, or just straight up missing the turns or exits (Segal). Other issues, such as reaction time or misjudging the distance between other drivers, including not reacting in enough time when there is a need to stop, confusing the brake and gas pedals with one another, or quick to lose composer when in a high traffic situation (Segal).
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The fact of the matter is that senior drivers, including teenagers, have the highest crash rate among all ages. It is very reasonable to assume, with all the flaws of aging, that it is the sole cause of such bad driving. According to scientist Alexander Pollatsek, this might not always be the case. The behavioral scientist from Massachusetts University (Wray 1), along with other associates, has been working on an algorithm to monitor and analyze the area's elderly citizens driving habits, including the way they visualize the regions around them. Pollatsek’s information he found on the subject, strongly suggests that the mistakes the drivers made, may have been learned through a force of habit and can very well be corrected (Wray 1).
Pollatsek and other colleagues intensively observed the way the drivers viewed the area around them when approaching potentially threatening intersections. However, what Pollastek found was not accounted upon. The younger drivers spent more time surveying the locations around them than the elderly did. There had been no potential distractions, like walking bystanders or heavy traffic for that matter, to throw off the drivers in the test (Wray 2). Not to say that the elderly drivers did not survey the area at all, they just did not do as much as the younger group did, and not when they could have to avoid possible hazards. Pollastek states that in conclusion, the senior drivers’ inability to search for the incoming danger around them, was a primary cause in the crash rates among the age group (Wray 2).
So why do the elderly drivers have such a hard time when viewing the area around them? Research from the scientists’ state that their primary focus was geared more to what they could see directly in front of them (Wray 3). Not only did they soley concentrate on what was immediately ahead, but they failed to track the zones from side to side all together. The researchers assume that with old age, the senior drivers tend to only centralize on not hitting anything or anyone.
These severe driving habits among the elderly were attempted to be broken. The scientist set up four cameras amid the drivers to record their exact movements as they traveled from their home throughout the week. One camera was set up to see the point of view of the driver. The remaining three cameras were placed in various positions all over the vehicle (Wray 3). After the initial recording, all of the drivers took part in assorted schooling sessions. A portion of the elderly took time to learn different driving techniques in a simulation, while the others were taught and corrected based on the video survalence they had received previously. Later on, all senior drivers ended up receiving a final assessment through driving one last time (Wray 3).
The outcome of the tests were very substantial. The elderly made astonishing improvements to their driving compared to before the initial training. The tests, however, were not created to refine the motor skills of the senior citizens, but to try and fix incorrect driving habits they might have learned previously (Wray 3). This strongly suggests that the misuse of the way they viewed the area before them was not due to the effects of aging, but due to an inaccurate way of learning.
Whether the vehicular accidents from the elderly were caused from the effects of aging, or simply just bad driving habits, elderly driving has been proven to be a very reoccuring issue throughout the United States for many years now. There are steps that need to be taken in order to help solve the topic. Senior citizens need to be evaluated of their cognitive functions, such as reaction time, and their ability to properly visualize the road. They also need to be assessed on their ability to drive entirely.Without a way of properly addressing the problem as a whole, it will never get any better. In fact, the issue may even worsen.
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