Limit Old Drivers?

In about 4 months, my family almost got into 4 accidents involved with old people driving recklessly on the road. Sure I can understand that they have to buy everyday uses and maybe go fishing, but shouldn't we put a cap on the age?

Old people driving on the road endangers the lives of others. In my city, an old man ran over and fatally wounded about 8 people on the sidewalk in a course of 5 months. Nothing happened to him because we feel sympathy for an old man. But 8 people dead? That's too much.

We should either put a cap at 70 or 75 years old in my oppinion. Sometimes old people just don't see other drivers around them, whats the difference between them and a drunk driver other than the fact that one's drunk?

It is limiting their freedom, but if we say that then younger kids shouild be able to drive as well. Just becasue one is old and experienced, the fact that he/she has slow response rates and attention span cannot be ignored.

What do you guys think?

reply to post by die_another_day


I completely agree. I know my Mom is a hazard.

She had to take me for a day surgury one time about 10 years ago (she was 73) and I never thought we would make it there.

She drove at least 10 miles under the speed limit the entire time, in a busy area and almost caused a few accidents.

I don't know how she has managed to keep her license this long, as she has been blind in one eye since she was about 55 years old, and can't see a darn thing at night.

She grips the stearing wheel like she is about to embark on an amusement ride, and has to sit on a pillow to be able to see out of the windsheild.

I don't know why she insists on driving the car, since she lives in an area where she can drive the golf cart she has to the store!

There is a stupid double standard in this country regarding driving fitness. If you witness a 25 year-old stumble on the way to his/her car you would phone the police for the good of everyone else in public. If a 75 year-old stumbles on the way to his/her car, you will most likely help the old fart get into their car. Why?

Why do we allow people who have a history of stroke, seizure, or even dementia to continue to drive? The situation got so bad in Florida ("Where America goes to die!") that they passed a law allowing for mental competency evaluation to be performed if it is suspected that a driver may be a danger to themselves or others due to a mental deficiency.

A week ago, I watched my elderly neighbor try to leave her own driveway. She proceeded at 1-2mph, hesitated twice with quick and jarring stops, ran over part of her lawn, came down off the curb hard (bottomed the car), and then drove off, smiling, to go endanger some school children's' lives (it was the time of day when the kids start walking home.)

Jon

[edit on 5.3.2008 by Voxel]

It should be based on driving skills. Some older people might be a hazard, some not.

Anyone can be a hazard.
People driving like h***, weaving in and out of traffic lanes.
People who routinely drink and drive with impaired reflexes and thinking. People who are too busy doing something in their vehicle other than driving. People who are just more important than everyone else on the road and demonstrate it their belief that they own the road.
Younger people who think every drive is participation in a NASCAR event.

My favorite are the people who get upset that the vehicle in front of them has the nerve to slow down and make a turn on to a side road. They display their annoyance by tailgating, honking and various gestures.

It has to come down to driving ability, you can not go banning all old folk off the road because of the odd one or two, i know people in their 80's who would leave most young drivers embarrassed at how competent they are at driving, to ban everyone would be ageism.

And on another note maybe the young racers should be banned because they think speed laws do not apply to them, there are arguments for all cases, and you have to remember one day you are going to be old would you like to have your independence taken away.

You do have a good point but it has to be done on person to person basis not just an overall ban.

I agree with many of the points made about "drivers ability to drive".
While we can agree that most of the older folks are at higher risk of not having the skills needed to drive. Such as reaction time, and 20/20 vision.
I do belive that all old people should not be banned from driving.
But limited yes, I could go with that to a point..
It should come down to their ability to drive.

After all these older folks have much more exp. on the road than younger people. So it all boils down to their motor skills at the time.. Which IMO should be tested on a regular basis!
I happen to feel that younger drivers are even more dangerous than older drivers. They have no exp on the road and are egar to test out how fast you can go and push limits. Thus I dont think this should be at the base root of just old folks.. This is something that is of all creed and all color, old and young alike.

I cant tell you the number of times I get behind grandma or grandpa on the roads down here in florida! Its where people come to DIE!
And yes there are some very dangerous old folks who decide they need to drive, and put everyone around them at risk!

To end this post, I will say this.. I dont know why old people are going to drive slow, I mean your getting very close to death, I think they would want to go a bit faster.. LIke come on! lets move it.. Your dying!!

When IM 80, Im going to drive 80!!!
Thanks Nickolas for letting me ripp your jokes here!!

But really this is no laughing matter. As the numbers of cars on the road today are more than ever! And its dangerous out there!

Just think about it.. YOu have a small paved bit of road layed down, and a painted line that seperates you from other huge metal objects moving at fast speeds comming right at you all day long!
In the back of mind sometimes when I am driving I almost feel as if Im on a suicide run everyday!
All it takes is one person to shift over that painted line, and hit me head on! Im going 45 mph, they are going 45 mph. And we hit head on!
Not pretty! And its crazy when you really think about how our roads are set up.. 1 little road, and cars zooming along, comming only a few feet away from eachother in the opposite direction!
What a crazy world we live in!!

[edit on 3-5-2008 by zysin5]

Bad drivers come in all colors and ages, however since the highest number of accidents is caused by young drivers I would have to say that your thread is age bias. www.caringhandswithgoldenhearts.com...

I also want the driving age to be rasied to 18.
I don't see how it's ageism. I don't hate old people, I just think that a limit may be the best thing for the safety of society.

No one has to be told that bad drivers comes from all color and ages.

Originally posted by die_another_day
I also want the driving age to be rasied to 18.
I don't see how it's ageism. I don't hate old people, I just think that a limit may be the best thing for the safety of society.

No one has to be told that bad drivers comes from all color and ages.

True enough, I will be 60 years old this September. I remember times in South East Asia, and elsewhere, when in the service of Uncle Sam, I thought I might not live this long, and so, feel like I am on gravy time.

I think of ageism in a bit of reverse. Let folks drive when they're 16. It is more like natural selection. The smart ones make 17.

I live in a rural area. Were there community transportation of any regularity, that would get me to work, get me to the grocery store, get me to the Lowes, etc. on a regular basis, and let me take the occasional long ride on a Friday evening out through the countryside (seeins how I can afford the gas), I might be very tempted to let them have my license back... Oh except for those really neat days when I take my 1999 Corvette Fixed Roof Coupe with 365 Horsepower (that gets 34 miles to the gallon between here and Kansas City) on a run.

Oh, and I have an 86 year old Mother-in-law who could, in all likelihood drive rings around most folks. But... That's a story for another day.

Seriously though, it seems as if we ought to limit driving to capability. There should be hands on tests of driving skills for everyone, every few years. Know the signs, know the laws, demonstrate passable hands on skills... Or surrender your license. That would be for ages 16 to 199.

Originally posted by sigung86

Seriously though, it seems as if we ought to limit driving to capability. There should be hands on tests of driving skills for everyone, every few years. Know the signs, know the laws, demonstrate passable hands on skills... Or surrender your license. That would be for ages 16 to 199.

I agree with you on this one. I have been driving for 36 years and have never had a ticket. I have only been asked to take one road test in all those years, and that was when I got my license at age 16. As a matter of fact, that was the only time I ever took a written test, too!

I agree with ability testing, I think we should all go in for a driving ability test every time you have to renew your license when it expires on your birthday...if your ability has dimished then so do some of the priviledges of driving, like not driving at night, only during certain hours of the day..etc.
And another thing to keep an eye on is insurance rates for individuals if they are paying a higher rate then everyone else there is a good reason.
I was in an accident in 2004...I was driving my 1985 Suzuki Bandit 400 bright and cherry red, down the street to go to the store...not more than 5 miles away from home...when a 78 year old man looks like he is going to pull out in front of me because he doesnt see me, being a bike rider you get this a lot, so I slowed down to let him go...then he slammed on his brakes as if he finally saw me ans was letting me go...this happens a lot too...so I gave the bike some more gas to hurry and pass him....then he pulls out in front of me AGAIN! this time it was too late and I was going at least 35mph and locked up my brakes and tried to throw down my bike to not hit him, but it was too late.
And the funny thing about this old man pulling out in front of me was that he had just picked his car up from the shop a couple of days earlier for having been in another wreck the previous month...so the wreck he got in with me was his 4TH that year and it was only July!
My lawyers tols me that I was lucky that he had been in so many wrecks because his insurance company made him get $100,000 of coverage...and if he didn't I wouldn't have had enough to cover my hospital expenses of $26,000....isn't this great.

reply to post by roadgravel


I couldn't have said it any better roadgravel. A star for denying ignorants. I was behind another car coming out of my neighborhood the other day and these two young teenage girls were jumping up in down in the front seat of their car. They must of been listening to some music or something but they were not paying attention to the road at all. We were coming around a curve and these girls were on the other side of the road but thankfully nobody was coming that time. A few days or weeks, I can't remember but I seen their car wrecked in the front badly. They live in my neighborhood so I know who they are and they are partying and loud all the time. That doesn't bother me as much as the driving I see them do all the time. I see young women driving like it's the Indy 500 and other young drivers racing for one more car length, ( ONE MORE CAR LENGTH>) to get to where they are going faster. If anything the young need the extensive driver training.

My father in law is well into his eighties and has hit the side of his house twice, and most recently hit cars in parking lots as well as run into his freezer in his garage numerous times. My husband pleads with him to stop driving but unfortunately my father in law throws a tantrum just like a child having a fit over a snow cone.

I wish there were age or ability caps for driving, that way we could get him off the road and he could just deal with it instead of telling us kids that we are out to take his freedoms away. I told him last time, he'll be taking his own freedom away when he kills an innocent family on the way to the grocery store. Stubborn with a capital "S"

Another reason testing drivers every few years or so is important, is that people seem to forget that driving is a privilage and not a right.

Lot's of people who can drive, don't for lot's of reasons, and do fine getting around by other means of transportation.

Just because you can't drive anymore, doesn't mean you have lost your freedom. It just means you have to take the bus, or get somebody else to transport you.

People who use the "loss of freadom" rant don't fly with me. If they are able to hurt somebody with the "freedom" of driving when they shouldn't be, then they are taking away the "freedom" of some innocent person they might mame or kill.

If you think someone is a danger report them to the police or doctor and they will pull the license.

Fancy

Age has nothing to do with it. I'm 17 and some 35 year old pulled out in front of me and totaled my new car I had worked for. Iv'e never gotten a ticket, so no the driving age should not be raised to 18, because I know i'm a better driver than alot of older people. People say young people are more reckless, and some say really old people are.

We should all have to take a test every ten years or something to prove we drive safe.

Actually, if you follow the Supreme Court rulings on the whole "driving issue," they uphold that every Citizen has the Right to Travel Freely...Which includes not being required to register or obtain license if you're not traveling for any commercial or business purpose.

But registering your car & getting a driver's license, in effect, contracts you to giving ownership of the car to the State so they can "re-define" your automobile into a motor vehicle & require you to obtain license...Yeah, it's all a tricky way of getting you to waive your Rights & let the State replace them with privileges.

Still, if the oldster waives his Right to Travel (& thereby is registered & licensed), he should not be allowed an "automatic renewal" once reaching a certain age. This would only be common sense to realize that a person's skills degrade with advancing age.

If he hasn't waived his Right, then the Right cannot be limited an any way...But with that Right he also carries the personal & civil responsibility to recognize when his skill is degraded seriously enough & decide when to stop driving. If he doesn't recognize or acknowledge this responsibility & violates the Rights of others (by committing bodily harm and/or property damage) then he should still be legally held responsible for that.

I'm wondering what and why indeed this topic of old drivers vs new ones, are being addressed on ATS. I would think there would be a better response, if these questions were directed towards driver oriented website. Are we runnng out of serious things to discuss here at ATS.
That being said... drive safely.

reply to post by Solarskye


First off, how is your argument any different than the one saying that the elderly should be limited on driving? People are told they have to wait until 16 to drive...because people don't want 10 year olds driving because it isn't safe. On the flipside..then what makes it wrong to tell the elderly they can't drive anymore after a certain age because it isn't safe? I don't agree with stopping people from driving, but you need to look at the flipside.

I have also noticed a comment above where limiting driving for the elderly was called ageism, but failed to notice that telling people they have to wait to 16 to drive, 18 to vote, or 21 to drink would also be ageism.

Finally, the comment that I am replying to seems to be on the side saying that it is wrong to group all elderly drivers together, but later groups all teens together. Most teenagers I know are very good drivers, and while there are some that do dumb dangerous things...it isn't all of them. Another thing is that most people I know weave in and out of traffic to get out from behind the old person doing 40 in a 70. I know some elderly people are very stubborn but like my 83 year old great-grandmother says "there comes a time when you should quit driving." Her 90 year old sister just lost her license last year when she ran a yield sign and was hit by a car that was right in the intersection, totalling his car. While on the other hand my other 80 year old grandma is a great driver with no tickets or accidents and she even drives faster than I do. All in all I agree with the point of view stating that the driving privilege should be based on a fair unbiased driving test for all ages, but hell if people convicted of DUI or OWI can be back on the road in less than a year then whats so wrong with letting the elderly drive?

Well this is a very touchy subject. There are a lot of bad drivers.

My thought is that teens should be limited until 19 and be tested on a regular basis.

People over 65 should be tested on a more regular basis.

My parents are both in their mid 70's and both drive better then most responsible adults but they may be the exception, I don't know.

Each different group of people seem to have their own unique problems.
Elderly drive slow and have poor reflexes so they leave large gaps in traffic and break often.

Younger men think they're qualifying for the indy 500 and have no idea what turn signals are used for.

Younger women are distracted drivers. Typically what I see is a woman on the phone, drinking a cup of coffee and speeding.

Middle age men like to multi task like driving and reading the newspaper, writing, reading a book, etc.. and think that works out ok.

These are things that I have seen just in my area and may not be indicative of any other locations.

So my question is if we're going to test or limit the elderly, where do we draw the line?