When Should the Elderly Stop Driving Cars?

Americans have had a love affair with their cars for years. Small or large, gas-guzzlers or economical, people throughout the country depend on their cars to get from hither to yon, and home again. As the American population, specifically baby boomers, continues to get older, how will this impact car safety and car accidents?

Perhaps the proverbial elephant in the room becomes the question, "When should I stop driving?" How can older drivers become safer drivers, or are there any ways to protect them and other innocent people? In a recent press release, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Medical Center hope to find answers to these questions.

Funded by a $330,000 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, researchers have developed a "Road-Safe Seniors" project.

They will begin screen at least 800 seniors. The seniors will be screened for specific medical conditions that can affect their ability to drive, including cognition, strength training, and vision.

Their goal? To help seniors identify their ability to safely drive cars, and treat any conditions, whether temporary or permanent, that would improve their abilty to drive safely.

Goals

One of the ultimate goals is to include driving assessments as routine care for all seniors who are treated at the UCSD Medical Center.

"Our goal is to reduce senior injuries and deaths due to driving injuries, while increasing awareness of the mechanisms to screen and support senior drivers," said Linda Hill, M.D., clinical professor of family and preventive medicine, UCSD School of Medicine. "We want to help seniors reduce side effects from medication and health problems that make them a hazard on the road. And we need to help them recognize when it's time to find alternatives to driving."

Seniors and driving statistics
Senior drivers who are 80 years old are four times more likely than a 20 year-old driver to be involved in a car accident that causes their death. Women drivers are three times more likely to have a car accident that results in their death.

Using estimates of the number of miles driven each year, drivers age 85 and older have a fatality rate that is nine times higher than the fatality rate of drivers between 25 and 69 years old. Nine times. Compared to all licensed drivers that spans a range of over 44 years.

Now let's take those numbers and crunch them into projected growth patterns. Right now, the number of licensed drivers in California who are 65 years old or older is 17 percent of all licensed drivers.
However, by the time the year 2020 hits, there will be over 40 million drivers who are 65 years old and older. Nearly all of these drivers will continue to drive.

Medical professionals hope that by using medically derived screening tools, they can help people determine the best time to stop driving and find alternative means of transportation.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/535445/