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Driving Safety Tips For Seniors: To Take the Keys or Not?
Lisa Reisman • Aug 28, 2019
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Seniors and Driving: To Take the Keys or Not
Driving, for any age group, allows a sense of freedom that is hard to beat. It means independence and self-sufficiency and many times is one of the hardest things for senior adults to give up. It’s important for you to recognize the age-related changes that could put your loved one in harms way on the road, not only to keep them safe but for other drivers too. Furthermore, it’s important for you to realize that not all senior citizens are harmful drivers despite their age. Evaluating their health with a professional could ease your thoughts of them still being their own chauffeur well into their senior years.
Driving ability goes far beyond being able to just physically operate a vehicle. Safely driving a car means having the physical and cognitive abilities that make driving so important. According to an article on Consumer Reports, 40 million people over the age of 65 still have a driver’s license. Sandy Rosenbloom, a professor of community and regional planning at the University of Texas, says that seniors don’t even like to discuss the thought of not being able to drive. “I’ve done dozens of focus groups in seven different countries. If you ask seniors anywhere, ‘When do you think you won’t be able to drive?’ they will uniformly say about 10 years from whenever you ask. It doesn’t matter what age they are when you ask. They can be 80!” Some do manage to drive into their late 80’s, more than 3.5 million to be exact. Many of these drivers however, don’t have the proper heath in order to be responsible for their transportation.
If you’re caring for, or know a senior who’s still driving, look for these age-related changes that can compromise their safety behind the wheel:
Cognition: Driving integrates several skills at the same time like attention, memory, and visual processing. Judgment and processing speed can become jeopardized with seniors especially given the types of medications prescribed to treat existing medical conditions. Painkillers, anti-depressants, and sleeping pills can all play a role in cognitive troubles. Almost 30 percent of seniors in a study were taking at least 5 prescription medications.
Hearing and Vision Loss: How many times have you been driving and heard a honk that has reminded you to stay in your lane or because a car has been lurking in your blind spot? Routine vision and hearing tests are imperative to safe driving based on the road signs and signals needed to operate a vehicle. Driving at night can be especially dangerous for seniors as it requires strong peripheral vision, which can worsen with age.
Medical Conditions: Severe medical conditions, especially those inhibiting motor function skills and memory, can be quite compromising for seniors who drive. Driving with Alzheimer's Disease
can be dangerous for many reasons, mainly because seniors can forget simple road rules as well as their purpose for getting in the car in the first place. Research suggests that people living with Alzheimer’s disease tend to overestimate their driving abilities despite the fact that those with mild dementia are more at risk for unsafe driving. If possible, try to have those who you’re caring for living with memory loss or early stage Alzheimer’s disease sign a contract allowing their driving to be taken away if the disease worsens. Another mode of productivity would be to have the senior in question evaluated by an occupational therapy rehabilitation specialist. According to the Mayo Clinic, the American Occupational Research Association has a national database on driving specialists; a specialist can determine the impact of the disease on the person’s ability to drive and offer strategies for driving safely as well as how to reduce or stop driving all together.
It’s important to recognize that despite their stereotypes, that not all seniors are hazardous behind the wheel. Consumer Reports writer Michael Tortorello includes that decades of statistics show that crash rates per mile driven are highest for the youngest drivers (ages 16 to 19), though they do begin to tick up steadily once drivers roll past age 70. Research has also shown that older adults are more likely to wear seatbelts and obey speed limits. “They are less likely to drive at night or while intoxicated, or to text while they drive,” says Emmy Betz, M.D., M.P.H., an emergency room physician and associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who researches senior-driving safety. Additionally, many seniors also regulate their driving behavior, limiting their trips at night, on highways, or during rush hour.
“Ageism” is a real term utilized over and over again in “The Clinician’s Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers,” which was revised last year by the American Geriatrics Society and published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Many states have special restrictions based on age such as more frequent or in-person license renewals, as well as stricter medical approvals and vision tests. Researchers have gathered that these in-person renewals and vision tests have deterred many seniors from renewing their licenses based on a fear they may not pass the screening— many discontinue driving based on that alone. It is common nature to assume many seniors have diminished vision, poor motor skills, and slower cognitive function, but the rate at which these deficits take over varies largely from person to person. There are plenty of 80-year-olds who have never needed supervision on anything, let alone received a traffic violation or put themselves in danger behind the wheel.
Before you take away keys or continue to let a senior drive, assess their driving skills with these tips by Parentgiving.com:
Have a family member ride with or follow the senior at least once a month to evaluate him or her for impaired driving judgment issues.
Monitor the mileage on the car. If mileage is longer than the short trips they are taking, it could mean they are getting lost.
Monitor the car for new dents or scrapes.
Taking away the keys of a grandparent or senior you care for can be an emotional, yet a necessary conversation you’ll need to have at some point in their elderly years if their safety becomes concerning. Start by consulting a medical professional so you have more solid references for the talk you have, and use sensitivity when explaining the reasoning behind this sudden life change. You need to remember that driving is something they’ve been able to do on their own their whole life, and it’s being taken away from them as a natural part of aging and life taking its course. Caregivers and family members should organize transportation for them so that way they can continue to participate in activities they’ve previously been able to get to, like social outings and simple errands. Life doesn’t have to stop because their driving does. Being there for them as a support system will make the transition easier and less upsetting overall.
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