Elderly Drivers
Have you ever been driving, and someone just cut you off? Many of the times this happens, it is an elderly driver. How you handle the situation depends a great deal on your individual driving etiquette. Although many of us would like to blame the elderly person for being a horrible driver, much of the time it is simply problems that will affect even the best of us when we reach a certain age. Nevertheless, for their own safety, not to mention the safety of other drivers and pedestrians, elderly drivers should be required to take both a vision test and an actual driving test when they reach the golden age of 65.
One reason this second driving test should take place is that statistics show that elderly drivers are more likely to get into an accident than any other driving group besides that of teenagers. These drivers usually tend to have the most collisions at intersections (SmartMotorist) and while attempting to make left hand turns.
United States
United States
Crash test hall at the Insurance Institute for Hig...According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers aged 65 and older have a higher crash rate per mile driven than all other driving groups, excluding drivers under the age of 25. The accidents that occur with these older drivers usually tend to be multi-vehicle crashes, which places a great risk for second and third party injuries, and coincidentally, fatalities (Vierck 59).
Another reason for this driving test is that if involved in a car accident, elderly drivers are more likely to die of their crash-related injuries than any other age group. A recent study by the AAA foundation for Traffic Safety found that drivers older than 65 are nearly twice as likely to die in a car crash than drivers aged 55-64. This same comparison to drivers aged 75...