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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 23, 1957)
I he head of the motor vehicle bureau in nil Eastern state recently received the following letter: "My father is 78 years old. lie has been driving an automobile for almost 50 years and has always been a good and careful driver. Because he has long been licensed to drive in this state, he has never been required to take a driving examination. In my opin ion, he is no longer a safe driver. He reacts slowly and is overcautious to the point of being dangerous. Several times he has almost caused a serious accident. "I'm concerned not only about bis own safety but that of other motorists. Is there any way you could give him a driving test with out telling him why?" The man in question was tested on the pretext that his insurance company demanded a re-examination. He found to be dangerous, and his license was continued only on condition that he no longer drive at night or in heavy, congested traffic. It seemed like a severe pen alty at the tune, hut sober reflection convinced the old man that the safety of a great tnay yeiipie s iiiwdvcd. Tkuj W09 not an umisu.il irurtxncts Hundreds of similar i1ellerkJfe-oived each e.u o ($0 f'OMillv U'frtlii. JV ?. o Ajre You Too Old to Since most states don't require periodic by licensing officials. When examiners follow them up, they find that the family wor ries are justified in an over whelming number of cases. This points up two basic facts pertinent to our con tinuing campaign for safety on the highways: (1) few elderly people or people of any age, for that matter are able to appraise their own abilities and stop driving when they are no longer safe behind a wheel; and (2) our present driver-licensing sys tem is woefully weak in dis covering and retesting drivers who are no longer competent. It has long been accepted among most motor-vehicle authorities that the older a driver gets the more fre quently his driving ability should be tested. Couple this with the fact that by 1075 nearly half the adult popula tion of the United States w ill Iv over t5, and it's evident we have a problem of con siderable proportion. This is not meant as a re flection on senior drivers, but simply as a note of warning for their own safety. As pointed out by Glen Car inichael, assistant director of training for Northwestern University's famed Trallic In stitute: "For the senior driver whose vision deteriorates, w hose reaction time is slowed, whose attention is easily dis by Joseph N tracted, whose frailty places him in jeopardy on the high way, some licensing measures will have to be taken." A 1 ost states have what is known as a "grandfather clause." This means simply that once one gets a driver's license no matter how long ago he can renew it indefi nitely without taking any sort of driving test. In many stales, no test was required in the first place. As a result, there are more than 25 million drivers, most of them elderly, who have never been subjected to an unbiased driving examination! Some efforts have been made to legislate mandatory re-examinations. In 19-11. New Jersey pioneered by calling in for examination every driver over 65 w ho was involved in a reportable ac cident, no matter how minor. The results of this program were startling: barely a third of the drivers examined teere able to pass their test with a Sdlisdctor; score. Licenses of these people were not always revoked; in some instances, conditions were put on them such as staying below a certain speed or driving only during the daytime. New Jersey officials estimate jiiat several thousand dangerous drivers were re moved from the highways as -cU LJ i l 15 V. KVW..' - 3 Mi tests, it's up to you to a result of this program, which became a pattern for similar action elsewhere. But the political pressure to lift the re-examination requirements in New Jersey was tremendous. Elderly peo ple were outraged at this seeming restriction of free dom aimed at a special group, and their complaints were loud and effective so effec tive, in fact, that the program was discontinued in 1951. The senior citizens argued that if they were to be sub jected to special examina tions, why not, also, the younger people who careen about our highways and are much more frequently guilty of speeding or recklessness? Ideally, of course, nil driv ers should be re-examined periodically, and the begin nings of such a program have appeared notably in the states of North Carolina, Ari zona, California, Iowa. Mich igan, and Washington. But where resources aren't available for such a wide spread program, licensing officials are almost unanimous in saying that re-examination should start with elderly drivers whose reflexes and reaction limes have slowed over the years The police lieutenant in charge of Chicago's hit-and-run accident-investigation unit told me: "In spite of the WW Bell Fj 1 recognize high incidence of speeding and reckless driving among young people, less than one halj of one percent of the 12.000 hit-and-run accidents we have every year are caused by teen-agers. These kids are sharp drivers and they love and protect their cars. They get involved in relatively few accidents." I" our states (Delaware, Illi nois, Maine, and New Hampshire) now have man datory re -examination for elderly citizens. Virginia dropped out last year, al though experience showed that approximately one out of three elderly drivers applying for license renewal was un able to pass the test. There seems little doubt that eventually legislation will be the answer to this problem a licensing program ade quate to re-examine nil driv ers at periodic intervals. But until that time comes, older persons in particular can do much to protect themselves and others by asking: "Am I still safe behind the wheel?" Although there is no sub stitute for a test given by a trained examiner, you can get a clue to your driving capabilities by asking the fol lowing questions prepared for Family Weekly by the Northwestern University Traffic Institute:
