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Driving and Older Adults
Are you safe while driving?
As people age, physical and cognitive changes that are part of the normal aging process can affect their ability to drive safely. These changes include:
Declines in Functional Ability
Drivers’ overall functional abilities decline as their physical, visual, and cognitive capabilities diminish with age. Physical capabilities including hearing, muscle tone, reaction time, and visual capabilities (especially vision at night) all decline, albeit at very different rates on the individual level.
Decline in Cognitive Capabilities
Driving is a complex activity that requires a variety of high-level cognitive skills that can diminish through changes that occur with normal aging or because of dementia. Drivers with greater cognitive dysfunction can have more erratic braking and accelerating behaviors in certain conditions such as daytime and on interstates. As drivers get older, they tend to be overrepresented in crashes requiring navigation of more complex situations such as intersections, left turns, and reacting to an impending crash. That said, mild cognitive decline can still allow for safe driving. Overall, tests of functional ability to drive may provide better indicators of crash risk.
Increased Medication Use
Over 90% of older drivers take prescription medications. These medications alone or in combination with other medications may be necessary to control disease or health conditions but also may cause drowsiness or other negative side affects that could have a negative impact on their reaction times and driving abilities.
Driving Errors
Older drivers are less likely to drive aggressively or speed. However, they may exhibit other risky behaviors, such as driving slower than the posted speed limit or failing to detect or accurately judge the speed of an oncoming vehicle while making an unprotected left turn. The most frequent driving errors made by older adults include the failure to yield right-of-way, inadequate surveillance, and misjudgment of gaps. Older adults are more likely to be involved in angle collisions, overtaking- and merging-related collisions, and crashes in intersections.
Driver behaviors may also change in a positive way as we age and these changes can help protect us from serious injury and crashes. These behaviors include:
Decreased Impaired Driving
Older drivers are less likely than younger drivers to be involved in alcohol-related crashes.
Limit Setting
Many older drivers recognize and avoid driving at times and in places they feel uncomfortable, such as at night, on high-speed roads, or in unfamiliar situations.
Seat Belt Use
Seat belts are even more effective in preventing injuries and fatalities to older than to younger occupants and seat belt use among older occupants is slightly higher than the national average.
As a result of many of the changes and differences referenced above, the fatal crash involvement rate for drivers 65 and older is lower than for drivers younger than 65.
Older drivers are often the safest drivers in that they are more likely to wear their seatbelts, and less likely to speed or drink and drive. However, older drivers are more likely to be killed or seriously injured when a crash does occur due to the greater fragility of their aging bodies.
Older drivers can improve their safety by ensuring their cars are properly adjusted for them. A proper fit in one’s car can greatly increase not only the driver’s safety but also the safety of others.
Take a look below to learn about the Carfit Program, available to all seniors, to help increase safety driving.
Resources:https://www.nhtsa.gov/book/countermeasures-that-work/older-drivers/countermeasures/other-strategies-behavior-change/formal-courses-older-drivers
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