Senior Health and Driving Safety
Getting older does not necessarily mean that you should give up driving entirely; however, regularly assessing your ability to drive is a crucial part of maintaining your health as a senior. Eventually, the majority of people will reach an age where your reflexes slow down, and your vision deteriorates, and this creates an unsafe driving condition for you and everyone else on the road.
Seniors are a relatively safe age group of drivers, especially compared to the statistics on young drivers. Seniors are more likely to wear safety belts, follow the speed limits, and not drive under the influence. However, they are at higher risk of injury or death in a car accident due to age-related vulnerabilities like having fragile bones or possibly a preexisting medical condition. Aside from teen drivers, elderly drivers have the most significant accident fatality rate per mile driven, despite driving less often than teenagers. Below I will discuss some of the facts about senior drivers, in addition to providing some helpful guidelines that may signal when a senior citizen should no longer be behind the wheel.
Senior Citizen Health and Driving Statistics
- 80 percent of people in their 70’s suffer from arthritis, which makes turning, twisting, and flexing more painful.
- Weakened muscles, limited range of motion, and reduced flexibility impacts people’s ability to hold and turn their steering wheel, as well as their ability to step on the brake or accelerator.
- 75 percent of drivers that are 65 years or older admit to taking at least one or more medications.
- The fatality rates of elderly drivers are 17 times higher than a person between the ages of 25 – 64.
- In 2014, approximately 5,709 elderly drivers were killed in an accident. In the same year, around 221,000 more were injured by traffic accidents.
- One in six drivers in the U.S. is aged 65 years or older. There are an estimated 40 million drivers in this age group by 2020.
Red Flags for Older Drivers
An elderly adult’s ability to drive should be judged on a case-by-case basis. With that being said, there are still a few signals that should help older drivers seriously reconsider the safety of getting behind the wheel:
- Stopping at green lights or at an intersection where there isn’t a stop sign.
- Experiencing confusion with traffic signals.
- Running red lights and/or stop signs.
- Getting into accidents frequently, even if they’re just a small fender-bender.
- Frequently drifting into other lanes.
- Getting lost on familiar routes or having to call a family member to get directions.
- Constantly having trouble reading traffic signs or asking others to read them for you.
- Receiving a diagnosis for a mentally-impairing illness, such as dementia or Parkinson’s disease.
Watch YouTube Video: The Dangers of Elderly Driving. The video below from the show, The Doctors discusses the dangers of elderly driving and the injuries that older adults sustain in car accidents.
Pittsburg Personal Injury Lawyers
I’m Ed Smith, a Pittsburg Personal Injury Lawyer. If either you or a loved one has been severely injured in an auto accident that was at the fault of another party, you may want to consider speaking with a seasoned injury lawyer in your area. I can give you free and friendly advice if you call me at (925) 428-5220 locally or (800) 404-5400 toll-free.
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Senior Health and Driving Safety: AutoAccident.com
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