You can almost set your clock by it. The moment the latest story hits TV or the front pages of the daily newspapers about an elderly driver being involved a car crash, you can be sure the following day people on coffee row or at the gym will raise the subject. They’ll be indignant. They’ll blame the government for being too lax. But the thinking will be almost unanimous.
“Seniors are causing too many accidents,” they will insist. “People over 80 shouldn’t be on the roads.”
The case against older men and women getting behind the wheel of a car has grown in intensity in recent years. Small wonder. Each time a senior is involved in a car collision, it headlines the news. There was the recent case in Cooksville, Ont., where a 71-year-old man decided to make a left-hand turn by bypassing five vehicles waiting to turn and executed the turn from the middle of the intersection. The resulting crash killed his sister-in-law, her best friend and maimed him and his wife. A judge sentenced the crippled man to 10 months in jail.
A year or so ago, there was the incident in Winnipeg, where an 86-year-old driver pulled backwards out of a parking stall, but then continued in reverse the full length of the parking lot where he struck a child and ultimately came to a stop when his car hit a tree. The small girl survived, but the driver was charged.
And again the chorus screamed in unison for a ban on the elderly to drive. Well, in fact Manitoba is considering the implementation of stiffer restrictions or prohibitions much like those in Ontario. Currently, when a driver reaches age 80, according to the Government of Ontario site, s/he gets a letter and renewal form. The octogenarian then goes to a clinic for a vision test, an interactive group session about traffic laws, a complete screening exercise and a driving record review. Only then is the individual’s competency for driving determined. What’s important to remember, however, particularly in the case of the guy who made the illegal left-hand turn in Cooksville, is that he exhibited bad judgment; he didn’t screw up because he was 71.
“(The turn) is a marked departure from the standard expected of a prudent driver,” the Crown prosecutor said in court. “This manoeuvre, although brief, was highly dangerous.”
As a Manitoba publication pointed out recently, sometimes the danger posed by senior citizens behind the wheel comes from a deterioration of motor skills. In other words, it’s very likely age will cause eyesight to blur, reflexes to slow or one’s wits to become muddled. But any of those shortcomings can occur among young people too. Introduce the sense of invincibility or entitlement that the young often feel and the result can be speeding or drinking under the influence. Throw in a dash of smart phone addiction or the vanity that your “followers” can’t do without you before you park and you have equally dangerous distracted driving. When was the last time you saw a senior texting an LOL on the 401?
Sure, there is the potential for the invisible crippler – dementia – to hasten the need for an elderly driver or the family to take action. And statistics appear to be working against the elderly. In the past 20 years, the number of drivers over the age of 65 has doubled in Ontario, from 600,000 to 1.2 million. And at the same time the Alzheimer’s Society reports that half a million Canadians have dementia, with a new case reported every five minutes. In a generation, the babyboomer numbers will increase the frequency of to a new case every two minutes. All that doesn’t alarm Dr. Shawn Marshall at the Hospital Rehab Centre in Ottawa. The Toronto Star quoted Dr. Marshall’s “Candrive” study two years ago.
“The vast majority of older drivers are safe,” Marshall discovered in his research and he decried “crazy blanket comments (about seniors) that are ageist and unfair.”
I remember distinctly when my mother gave up her driver’s licence. Nobody told her she had to. Neither the police nor the DOT people came down on her with a legal ruling. Nor did her family apply any pressure. She simply recognized that her strength, her reflexes and her ability to see after dark were not what they used to be. She, like so many seniors who fear the loss of independence, but fear hurting someone even more, did the right thing. She decided to leave the car in the parking garage until a member of her family came along to help her get somewhere. Or she took the bus or a taxi.
One of the most powerful lobby groups representing seniors, the American Association of Retired Persons, recommends in-person licence renewals and screening that is not aged based.
“What determines your safety isn’t your age, but your ability,” AARP said.