States seek tests for older drivers

A looming "gray wave" of Baby Boomers expected on the nation's highways over the next two decades has provoked states to start programs aimed at permitting seniors to keep driving as long as they can without endangering themselves or others.

The number of Americans 65 and older will bound from 39 million in 2010 to 69 million in 2030, according to Census projection. Today, about 15% of all drivers in the USA are 65 or older; by 2025, one-quarter will be, says Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.” I really don't think our society is ready for that," he says. "We are not ready with respect to the kinds of issues older drivers face."

What states are doing?

California is analyzing the outcomes of a pilot project in which drivers who failed a preliminary written or vision test were required to take additional tests, sometimes together with an eye exam and a road test.

The state also proposes limited licenses in which elderly drivers are tested — and licensed to drive — only on specific routes that they travel frequently, says Charley Fenner of the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Maryland state law allows police, doctors and residents as well as relatives to refer potentially unfit drivers to the Motor Vehicle Administration's Medical Advisory Board. Police refer about 700 people annually; about 60% of them are drivers over age 65, says Carl Soderstrom, chief of the advisory board. Some drivers are retested

A 2004 Florida law requiring that older drivers pass a vision test before getting a license renewed has assisted to cut the death rate among drivers 80 and older by 17%, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"It didn't go down for other ages in Florida," says Gerald McGwin, lead author of the study and UAB epidemiology professor.
Experts say people age so differently that it’s not possible to devise a single standard.