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Geriatric Drivers: When Age and Driving Stop Getting Along

We've all seen it or heard about it, either in real life or on the five o'clock news: more and more aging drivers are causing accidents that normally shouldn't happen. Yes, we are familiar with the definition of an accident, but we're talking about 100% avoidable ones.

The sole reason for which they shouldn't happen is a very simple one: some people should just hang up or pass on the keys after they reach a certain age. This sounds cruel, especially if the person involved is a car buff like you or has depended on an automobile for more than half a century.

When do we know we should give up driving altogether? Well, the people at AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) have put together a small list of warning signs. Here they are, together with our tongue-in-cheek commentary in parentheses:


  • feeling uncomfortable and nervous or fearful while driving (if you're an Asian driver and just took your driving license in a foreign country... keep practicing)
  • dents and scrapes on the car or on fences, mailboxes, garage doors, curbs etc. (you live in a really bad neighborhood. Move.)
  • difficulty staying in the lane of travel (if you're a British driver visiting another country for the first time...)
  • getting lost (start asking for directions, buy a map or a GPS)
  • trouble paying attention to signals, road signs and pavement markings (get a better pair of seeing glasses)
  • slower response to unexpected situations (give up drinking and driving)
  • medical conditions or medications that may affect the ability to handle the car safely (lay off the drugs. No, really.)
  • frequent  “close calls” (don't play racing games anymore, your car doesn't have a “restart race” button)
  • trouble judging gaps in traffic at intersections and on highway entrance/exit ramps (use a back road)
  • other drivers honking at you and instances when you are angry at other drivers (anger management classes or Yoga)
  • friends or relatives not wanting to drive with you (maybe they don't find “in car flatulence” that funny)
  • difficulty seeing the sides of the road when looking straight ahead (dude, you're going TOO fast!)
  • easily distracted or having a hard time concentrating while driving (hang up the phone, it's illegal in most states anyway)
  • having a hard time turning around to check over your shoulder while backing up or changing lanes (don't drive with a neck collar and use your rear-view mirrors more often)
  • frequent traffic tickets or “warnings” by traffic or law enforcement officers in the last eyar or two (“The fast and the furious” is just a movie. Seriously.)

By the way, if you're not over 60, the stuff in the parentheses were meant as jokes. If you have grandkids and one or more of the aforementioned warning signs have happened to you lately you should really consider to either stop driving, or have your driving assessed by a professional or even attend a driving class to refresh your abilities. Also, you may want to go to a doctor consultation to see if you're having any memory loss problems or unusual concentration issues, since these may be affecting your driving ability.

If it really comes to giving up driving altogether, the matter should be handled with both sensitivity and practicality. The crash rates for senior driving citizens is about the same as for teenagers, but more people over 65 die in accidents since they are more fragile, so there really is no excuse for stubbornness in the matter, even if it might feel like suddenly becoming immobile for the person involved.
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About the author: Alex Oagana
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Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project.
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