SENIORS BEHIND THE WHEEL

Two long articles recently by Jane E. Brody, The New York Times personal health reporter, raise serious questions about older drivers: By 2020, more than 40 million Americans 70 or older will be licensed motorists, driving more miles a year than ever before. They are three times as likely to be involved in a crash per mile driven than middle-age drivers and more likely to die as a result.

More bad news for older drivers: Vision, muscle strength and reaction skill tend to deteriorate with age. Motor vehicles are more complex than they used to be. Traffic continues to increase.

Ms. Brody lists signs of danger – close calls, difficulty in judging speed and distance, getting honked at, getting lost, being told that people don’t want to ride with them – and suggests ways to ease an older driver away from the wheel and into the passenger seat.

Lauren Stewart, director of Maine’s Bureau of Highway Safety, says, “Maine is an extremely rural state, with little public transportation. We don’t try to stop older people from driving. We try to make sure that they have the tools they need to be safe on the road.”

In Maine, the crash-reporting system shows that younger drivers have far more accidents and traffic fatalities than older drivers. In 2004, 33 drivers over 65 were involved in crash fatalities and 32 others over 65 died in crashes. Among younger drivers (16 to 24), 68 were involved in fatal crashes resulting in 74 deaths.

For the older drivers, chief causes of accidents were inattention, crossing the center line, medical conditions and, in some cases, speeding. For younger drivers, the chief causes were unsafe speed, crossing center line and drunkenness.

Maine’s highway safety officials agree that there is a safety problem here. They have been working since last year on a plan, focused on use of safety belts, aggressive driving, younger and older drivers, and changing lanes and crossing the center line.

Their emphasis in the meantime seems to be mainly to help seniors drive safely. The Maine Bureau of Highway Safety offers a five-hour Maine Driving Dynamics Course for motorists regardless of age, but it charges seniors only $10 instead of the regular $25. Details and schedules are available online at www.maine.gov/dps/bhs/

To learn about AAA courses for older drivers, call Rayette Hudson at 780-6988. For AARP courses, check the Internet at www.AARP.org.

There comes a time, of course, when an older driver, possibly in the face of family pressure, should give up the car keys. That’s a tough decision, but there are remedies. If there is no public transportation, consider the help of family or friends, various community services that provide transportation and taxis. Even in a rural state, there are ways to keep going.