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| No | 8% | 12 votes | Total: 150 votes | |
| Yes | 92% | 138 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThe wording of the postulation leads to the heavy favoring of the offered solution, but the offered solution focuses to narrowly on the elderly. The eldest and the youngest drivers certainly pose the largest risks on the road, but so far legislation focuses on the young. For balance to the system as well as to reinforce the laws and best practices of driving I think that all drivers should have to undergo recertification of their credentials for driving.
Marked increments of requiring the operators of motor vehicles go the the DMV and participate in written and Driving exams would force all drivers to remember the laws and hopefully would improve the quality of driving everywhere. Driving is a privilege and as such there are hurdles to getting a drivers license, why are there not upkeep requirements? If you have ever been certified to provide CPR or First Aid there are required recertification courses, Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, CPA's and the ilk all require skill upkeep to insure that the quality of those professions are maintained at acceptable levels.
In my experience there are a large number of driving adults (yes that includes the elderly too) that have forgotten some of the laws that apply to drivers, or they have discarded good habits for the sake of expediency in city traffic. Anyone that has watched drivers crowd through a light and sit in the intersection blocking cross traffic knows the habits of city drivers are frustrating, and may realize that the behavior you are seeing at this light is being repeated all across the city compounding the heavy traffic and forcing everyone to wait longer. It is my hope that forcing drivers to test and re-certify would remind drivers that they are not alone on the road, and that cooperation is the only way dense populations can manage the traffic loads.
Learn more about this author, Josh Dennis.
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Yes
Yes, elderly drivers should have to undergo road tests to renew their driver's license.
I happened to be in a local tire store one day when an elderly gentleman slowly, and what appeared to be painfully for him make his way to the counter. The counter service rep greeted him, and asked how he could help him. The elderly gentleman asked the service rep several times to repeat himself, and the rep would do so each time more loudly. Finally the rep realized that the elderly customer had come to purchase new tires for his car using a coupon that he had brought along with him. The customer was very feeble, extremely hard of hearing, and his eyesight was terrible. He read the ad to mean that if he purchased one new tire, he would receive the remaining three tires at no cost to him at all.
It took the service rep an extremely long time to get the customer to understand what the ad in fact stated. The service rep didn't appear to care that the customer didn't understand, only that if he was able to get him to purchase the tires, it meant a sales commission for him. I personally shuddered when I realized that this very frail gentleman with obvious senility and being in a frail condition of health was out there on the streets driving alone.
I reside in one of the country's most popular retirement state. Each and every day there are horror stories of accidents that results in fatalities and the lone survivor of these horrific accidents are sometimes our beloved senior citizens who are these elderly drivers.
One 90 year old woman was reported to be at fault in an accident that involved a 22 year old and his best friend, they had just taken delivery of the owner's long awaited motorcycle. The two young men were killed instantly.
My dearly departed father-in-law defied the advice and admonishment of our family and drove himself to an early morning doctor's appointment at the nearest VA hospital. When he left the hospital at approximately 9:00 am, and had not returned home by 11:00, we all became alarmed as this was a 25 minute drive at best. I spent the entire morning calling every police station located between the hospital and his residence. When he finally called home, he was at a fast food restaurant 15 miles from his home, and 15 miles from the hospital. He had became disoriented, drove off the main road, ended up in a cow pasture. The entire front windshield was knocked out. He fortunately was not injured. When he was asked what had happened and where it happened he had no idea. He could not tell any of us, or the authorities any recollection of the accident.
When drivers become elderly drivers they are not always willing to admit that their advanced age is affecting their driving abilities. Usually the first of the senses that affects the elderly's ability to safely operate a motor vehicle is their sight. The state's should first test the driver's sight. Another ability that should be tested of elderly drivers are their reflexes. The ability to react to a situation in a reasonable time is crucial when driving. The elderly driver should also reveal what medications that they are taking. It is no secret that there are a host of medications that some elderly drivers are prescribed that affect the sensory perceptions needed for safe driving.
So not only should our elderly drivers undergo road tests, the laws should take in consideration the following: their age, a test of their reflexes, and their eyesight and as mentioned they should reveal any medications that they are prescribed and take regularly.
Learn more about this author, Platos Girl.
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