There is a silent debate going on about whether there should be an age limit on driving. This is stemmed from an overwhelming amount of accidents caused by senior drivers. A recent report by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found the rate of deaths involving drivers 75 to 84 is about three per million miles driven – on par with teen drivers. Once they pass age 85, vehicular fatality rates jump to nearly four times that of teens.
Crash scene of the incident where the age 101 driver hit 11 people.
Every now and then there will be a report on the news about a senior driver being responsible for a car crash. Last month, A driver who will turn 101 in September backed out of a parking lot near an elementary school in Los Angeles, plowing into 11 people, including nine children.
Should there be age limits on driving? I would say yes and no. I think that as we age we should be tested every now then. I don’t know what the time period should be between tests, but I feel that we need to be more proactive about these kinds of things. Currently, once you get a license, you will forever have one (unless you broken laws). That means one can go for 50 years or more without taking another test to make sure they can drive. That’s crazy!
But does this infringe on the privilege that people have to drive? What do you think?
(http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/08/30/how-old-is-too-old-to-drive/)
(http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/100-year-old-driver-hits-children-17113689)
Not only that elderly drivers are more prone to crash as they get older, they also drive slow. It annoys the heck out of me whenever I am behind a slow driver that is going 10mph or more below the posted speed limit. In New Jersey, drivers would need to renew their license every four years, but drivers over age 70 must renew every two years. In fact, it would be a good idea for people to re-take the driving test every once in a while, especially when they reach a certain upper age.