You hear the horns honking, see cars breaking, and swerving with single-fingered salutes as drivers zoom past a vehicle in moments of road rage. You drive past the scene of the disturbance, only to see a little old lady or man staring straight ahead, seemingly adrift, driving no where close to the speed limit.
Sound familiar?
“Some people believer older adults are the cause of a lot of crashes,” Arthur Visor, an AARP driver safety course instructor said to his pupils recently in a class in St. Louis County. “Do you believe that?”
“No,” they chimed in unison.
“Well, you are wrong – they are,” Visor said.
Classroom chuckles faded fast.
“Older drivers are properly the biggest factor other than the people that you normally talk about,” Visor said. “The younger drivers.”
The mostly female participants in the driver safety course (open to members and non-members for a fee) were there for a variety of reasons – mostly to get a discount on car insurance.
But here is another good reason. Older drivers account for more accidents than you would think. In 2010 in Missouri, older drivers accounted for 32 percent of all traffic crashes – and 35 percent of all fatal crashes. Of all the senior driver traffic crashes, MODOT reports more than 86 percent occurred during waking hours 7 a.m. through 6:59 p.m.
Putting it another way, MODOT reports one person was killed or injured in older driver related traffic crashes every 31.3 minutes in Missouri.
You know who the cops are watching on the roads? It’s not just sports cars zipping by or the age 16 to 24 younger drivers – their grannies and grandpas are probably right there with them.
If you are over age 50, look at your driver’s license now, to see when it expires. Tip alert: keep your license current, or you may not get it back.
“If you don’t renew it … you won’t be able to drive legally,” Visor said. “It’s usually difficult for an older adult to get their driver’s license back once it has been suspended or revoked – whatever the reason.”
Not only have roads and vehicle technology changed since mature drivers first earned their drivers licenses, their physical bodies have changed as well. Reaction times are slower, and age brings vision and hearing changes.
A study of older drivers (average age 74), with limitations in a “Useful Field of View(UFOV) test” were more easily distracted and rated as high crash risks, according to a study published in this month’s Optometry and Vision Science journal of the American Academy of Optometry. Useful field of view is defined as “the area over which a person can extract information in a single glance without moving his or her head or eye.” The study suggested minimizing distractions for older drivers with diminished UFOV.
When injured in a vehicle accident, older bodies are more fragile and require longer recovery time. All too often, older drivers or passengers in vehicle crashes don’t recover at all.
Failing to observe the right of way (yielding) is most common vehicle violation in drivers age 55 and older, according to AARP data, followed by making improper left turns.
“Every time you fail to yield the right-of-way, you almost had an accident,” Visor explained. “Every time you made an improper left turn, you could have had an accident if it were not for the other person seeing that you were doing something wrong.”
Side effects of medications, stiff, achy muscles, bones and other health problems may also limit driving ability, but they make a flimsy excuse for unsafe driving.
Exercises to maintain flexibility from head to toe are essential to safe driving as are rules of the road. Suggested daily exercises from AARP include stretching the neck, torso, shoulders, legs and ankles while seated – the position you’d be in if you were driving.
Can’t see for the blind spots?
First, know that all vehicles and all drivers have blind spots and the AARP says the best way to compensate for them is for all drivers to glance over either shoulder before they make a move.
Tailgaters – they are great at parties outside of sports stadiums, but while on the road – not so much. The Missouri Department of Revenue Driver’s Guide describes the safe following distance as the “Three Second Rule.” It states, “Choose an object near the road ahead, like a sign or telephone poll. As the vehicle ahead of you passes it, count slowly, ‘One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three.’ If you reach the object before you finish counting, you are too close to the vehicle ahead.’”
If another car encroaches on your safe driving space you have created – put your competitive instincts aside. It’s better to let the vehicle into your lane and slow down to create another safe distance between you and other cars.
Yield.
And roll safer with less stress.
For more information on older driver safety, visit www.aarp.org/drive or visit the AAA website www.seniordrivers.org.
