What prompts me to write this blog post is a recent accident that involved a school bus and a car. The car crossed over the center of the road and hit the school bus head on. A passenger in the car, an 84 year old woman was killed at the scene. Her 94 year old husband was the driver and he is in serious condition. The bus driver was unhurt.
I live in an area with a very high percentage of retired people. Too many times I have seen elderly drivers make unsafe lane changes, get distracted or just hit the gas instead of the brake. As far as I know we do not have a maximum age for drivers licenses but I believe we should.
My own father's driving got worse as he got older. His mental attitude became part of his driving and he drove with a "get out of my way" attitude. I think that he should have had his license taken away before he caused any accidents.
If you watch ABC's Funniest Home Videos, then you will see that being elderly and driving anything becomes a danger. There are plenty of clips showing elderly men trying to ride ATV's and motorcycles, even if it is apparent that they can't. They either end up under the ATV Tires or crash into something. Neither have a good ending.
While I am not saying that all elderly people are terrible drivers, I am saying that they should undergo a driving test every 6 months just to see if they are still capable of operating a peice of machinery like a car.
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