As the baby boomer generation hits senior status, a growing number of their family members will be faced with the question: When is it time to take away the car keys?
Senior drivers are the fastest-growing demographic on the road, and as a group, they’ve recently come under intense scrutiny. On Feb. 13, an 83-year-old man crashed his SUV into a framing store on State Street, Santa Barbara’s main drag. According to police, the man was trying to park but lost control of his car, driving through the storefront window.
A week earlier, in an incident caught on a cell phone camera and viewed by thousands on the Internet, another 83-year-old man, driving the wrong way on Interstate 5 near Oceanside, smashed his pickup into a freeway divider, causing a four-car pileup. No one was hurt in the crash, but it helped ignite a national debate over senior driver safety and renewed calls for age restrictions on licenses.
According to John Locher, senior driver ombudsman with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, drivers age 65 and older make up 11 percent of the state’s driving population, and the number is rising steadily. He called the headline-making accidents “aberrations.”
“There’s just a terrible bias out there against senior drivers, and it’s not supported by any facts,” Locher said. “Seniors as a group are generally safer than just about any group of drivers.”
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, in a 2008 report, analyzed all traffic collisions statewide from 1996 to 2006. Over the 10-year period, drivers 65 and older were responsible for only 6 percent of collisions and just 8 percent of all fatal accidents.
Furthermore, while car accidents are the No. 1 cause of death for those ages 4 to 34 in the United States, among those 65 and older, it’s not even in the top 10.
“If they’re driving less miles, then yes, it does kind of skew the numbers,” Locher explained. “But it still shows that they’re really not the death knell that some people have put them out to be.”
Elderly drivers, he continued, rarely drive while intoxicated, exhibit road rage, or drive without insurance. Generally, they also tend to restrict themselves from driving at night or on the freeway, understanding they’re not the same drivers they were before.
According to the most recent figures compiled by the DMV, in 2006, there were more than 40,000 drivers age 65 and older in Santa Barbara County. Though statistically comparable to teenage drivers in terms of causing accidents, seniors are unfairly targeted when they get involved in one, according to Aaron Pankratz, program manager with the Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens.
“With seniors, oftentimes the first response is ‘pull their license,’ without even thoroughly examining the incident to see who was really at fault,” Pankratz said.
California law currently forbids the DMV from reexamining anyone for a license based on age. However, after the death of Brandi Mitock, a 15-year-old girl struck and killed at a Santa Monica intersection by a 96-year-old man in 1998, the state passed a law requiring drivers aged 75 or older to take regular periodic road tests. After age 70, drivers also can’t renew their licenses through the mail and must pass vision and written tests every five years.
While anybody can make a referral for a license reexamination, most commonly they come from police officers, followed closely by medical doctors. California is one of just six states in the country mandating physicians report certain physical conditions to the DMV, including dementia, epilepsy, fainting, and heart ailments.
Referrals also come in from the adult children of seniors concerned about their parents’ driving, a difficult topic for many family members to broach.
“If it’s your son or daughter, you don’t want to hear them telling you that you can’t drive anymore,” Pankratz said. “It seems like your children are taking away your independence, and that’s always tough for everyone.”
While seniors statistically aren’t more likely to be involved in an accident than younger people, they are more likely to suffer a serious injury as a result of an accident. Many family members concerned about safety find success in contacting a doctor first, said Pankratz, who suggested bringing the subject up long before it becomes a problem.
“People wait until they’re in the car with Mom or Dad and they have a near-miss accident to say, ‘Time out! You shouldn’t be driving,’” he said. “That gives the senior no time for acceptance and results in people becoming defensive.”
Once referred, license reexamination takes place through the DMV’s Drivers Safety Branch, a quasi-judicial system within the department. In a regular reexamination process, the driver may need to retake written and road tests and provide medical information. Priority reexaminations occur for more serious incidents, such as driving the wrong way on a one-way street.
Entering the reexamination process doesn’t necessarily mean the end of driving for seniors. The DMV has the power to restrict a license hundreds of ways, such as banning driving at night or on freeways. The department can require safety adjustments, such as additional mirrors, booster seats, pedal extensions, and glasses.
Even when faced with the reality that they can no longer drive safely, seniors may be hesitant to surrender the wheel. Besides public transportation, there are other alternatives available on the Central Coast, according to Ashley Payne, executive director of the nonprofit Community Partners in Caring. The nonprofit’s volunteers gave nearly 400 local seniors free rides to doctor’s appointments and shopping centers last year. Many of the riders found the group after losing their licenses.
“Oftentimes they’re very depressed and sad and don’t really know what to do, because a lot of times they don’t have family members that live nearby to take them,” Payne said. “It’s a major life transition.”
For this reason, Senior Driver Ombudsman Locher said the DMV strives to keep seniors licensed as long as possible without compromising their safety or that of the rest of the driving public.
“You’re adversely affecting their life in so many ways,” he said. “Their independence, quality of life, and ability to socialize—it’s all gone. So it’s not something we want to do without a lot of thought.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas can be contacted at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 3-10, 2011.