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Essay on older drivers
Essay on older drivers
Essay on elderly drivers
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I am sure that at some point in their life everyone has been in a vehicle behind or near an elderly person. People call slow drivers Grandma, Grandpa, Paps, ect. when being sarcastic. In reality, not all seniors drive slow, but many do. Not all seniors drive carelessly, but many do. Not all seniors drive dangerously, but many do. Not all senior drivers need to have their driving evaluated, but many do. So why do seniors not have to take a mandatory driving test every year? Most are in denial about the risk that they pose when driving; that is the scary part. With increases in statistics of population, accidents, and fatalities, senior drivers pose a real safety threat to themselves and to the people society; luckily, there are signs to look out for when an elder needs get out of the driver's seat and places and ways to help them cope with it.
Every year we collect a plethora of statistics about almost everything, including elderly motorist, and when it comes to these, the findings are horrifying. It is predicted that the percent of elderly motorist will nearly double by the year 2030. Today, the percent of motorist aged 65 and up is 16; in 2030, it is suspected to be 25 percent (Kluger 1). Nobody wants to think about Grandma getting in an accident, but it happens. The chance of a wreck heightens at 65 and the years following (Neighmond 1). Seniors are more likely to expire due to wrecks than any other age group (Olson 3). Senior motorist are not only a risk to themselves, but they are a risk to the people around them.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drivers age 70 years and older account for approximately 9 percent of the United States population. However, these older drivers, who drive fa...
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...nd the general public safe.
Works Cited
Brown, Lauren Hinson. "Senior Drivers: Risk, intervention, and safety." the nurse practitioner 31.3 (March 2006):39-49. Ebscohost. PDF File.
Kluger, Jeffrey. "Too Old TO Drive?." Time 162.4 (2003): 73. Ebscohost. Web. 20 April 2014.
"Senior Driver Safety." Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. Florida Department of Motor Vehicles, 16 April 2014. Web. 16 April 2014.
Olson, Robin K. "Senior Driver Issues: Upcoming Challenges and Solutions." Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter ejournal (February 2005): 1-18. Ebsochost. PDF File.
Neighmond, Patti. "When Should Senior Drivers Hang Up The Car Keys?." Shots: Health News from National Public Radio. National Public Radio, 8 October 2012. Web. 20 April 2014.
"How to Understand and Influence Older Drivers." National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: 1-13. iseek. PDF File.
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
Schultz, William. “Would You Drive 55?.” Time U.S., 25 Jul 2008: n. page. Web. 5
" Web. The Web. The Web. 15 Mar. 2010. http://www.idebate.org. Gregory, Ted. A. Should 16-Year-Olds Drive?
According to the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, "automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for those aged 3 to 33, with 43,005 (118 per day) Americans killed in 2002 alone" (Clayton, Helms, Simpson, 2006). Worldwide, vehicle accidents consist of 1.2 millions deaths per year, "behind only childhood infections and AIDS as cause of death amount people aged 5 to 30 years old" (Clayton., 2006). The annual cost of road accidents is estimated about $518 billion"(Factor, Yair, Mahalel, 2013). The fact alone of being in a moving, heavy vehicle is a danger in itself but individuals that do not wear their seat belts, talk on the phone, text, and do other distracting behavior also put themselves in even more harmful situations.
Today’s society appears to be constantly on the go. People seem to be pulled in multiple directions at once. Individuals never appear to have enough time to complete tasks that continually accumulate. It can be difficult to criticize someone that tries to make the most out every minute. Unfortunately, some of today’s drivers show a lack of judgment and trying to perform other tasks, while behind the wheel. People may feel this is best use time while getting to a destination. Occasionally, the small amount of time that people are trying to gain results in a time consuming accident. With modern conveniences that are geared toward an on the go public, individuals appear to be too preoccupied to driving safely.
There is a great debate on whether or not the elderly should be able to drive. Most people who have had any encounters with terrible elder drivers would say no way. This is because they have had that one or maybe even two experiences with a not so cautious elderly driver. This experience has caused them to put a stereotype on all elderly people and their driving abilities. After reading and analyzing all four of the elderly women from the four works in A Writer’s Reader. The authors of each have included many different stereotypes of elderly women. Just like the elderly driving ability stereotype is not true for all elderly drivers. The Authors stereotypes are not always true for every elderly woman. The authors are just informing their readers on the many different stereotypes that are floating around.
According to Carnegie Mellon University the casualties’ rate for drivers 85 years and older is 4 times more higher than it is for teenagers who are considered are most reckless drivers. Penndot statistics shows that the number of crashes involving drivers age 65 and older in 2013 was up 12 percent from five years before. Voanews indicates that in a lot of elderly drivers accidents they mistaken the gas pedal for the brakes or vice versa. One fatality crash can affect and impact people for their whole lives. These crashes can occur in seconds. According to cdc.gov there were nearly 5,700 elderly drivers that were killed. Police are already busy enough the more we can reduce their work the more it will help keep our community safer; not only in crashes but the police can also focus more on preventing drug deals and gang fights. To put it another way we don’t want families to be stressed out on their elderly parents safety we want them to feel like their parents are safe, so they can go help other issues in this
Davis, Robert. “Is 16 too Young to Drive? Growing Numbers Think So.” USA Today. 1 Mar.
Again, it makes the headlines; an older driver causes a dangerous automobile crash. As the amount of elderly driving has increased in the past decade, the risk for others to be out on the road has increased. In 2012, there were 36 million licensed older drivers in the United States. (Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation (US)) As a 34% increase from 1999, it has been noted that seniors are driving past their ability by an average of 10 years. (Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation (US)). Elderly continue to drive despite the prominent physiological changes that worsen as they age. The amount of automobile collisions suggests that prevention must occur in order to make the roads safer. By examining older drivers’ medical complications, older drivers must be retested to be able to drive a vehicle.
Richard Petty once said “You’ll got home safe, so drive safe, and stay safe.” Being a racing legend, he is an advocate for safe driving to minimise the cases of road crushes that have been on the rise. He double up as the chairman of the Veterans’ Safe Driving Initiative, the initiative is aimed at guiding the veterans returning from deployment on safe driving tips. It is necessarily important since the infrastructure has changed over time. Another initiative is being run in Minnesota where the teens are guided on the important safe driving tips. Study shows that more crushes are likely to occur in teen driving than veteran driving. It is also evident that young drivers are more likely to cause a crush within six months of passing the driving test and young male are worse than the females in the field.
“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional deaths for teens (16-17),” reported The New York State Department of Health. The most exciting thing about being sixteen in the United States is driving. Teenagers can not wait to be sixteen to drive, however, they do not understand the dangers that come with driving at such a young age. Sixteen is the age between child life and adulthood. It is a time when they are not stable and undergoing change, which makes them unsuitable to drive. Many teenagers would say that they need to get to places. In response to that claim, there are public transportation systems and bikes as available alternatives for young drivers. The financial stability and matureness of eighteen year olds proves
“The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers” -Dave Barry, comedian. The number of accidents over the last ten years have drastically increased, drivers are paying less attention to the road itself. Many individuals behind the wheel of a car believe that their driving does not affect the road conditions, however it always will. The driving habits of today are catastrophic due to the reasoning that the driving will affect other lives through reckless or distracted driving, and disobeying traffic laws.
Motor vehicles are one of the leading causes of death for children, adolescents, and young adults. The mortality rate is at its highest because of the new drivers and young adults
Although the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety gave 26 sedans the top Safety pick award for 2016 while only 22 SUVs were given this award (“Top Safety Picks by Year”), a person driving a sedan head on towards a sedan is 7.6 times more likely to die in an accident, than a person driving an SUV. This is a major problem for sedans because front crashes have caused half of all passenger vehicle deaths (“SUVs”). Fortunately, sedans and automobiles in general have become safer due to new technology such as automatic braking systems. Automobiles are becoming safer every minute with new technology, but that does not change the fact that, a person driving a sedan head on has a higher risk of death than a person driving an
Another danger that may harm the elderly living alone is driving. Since eyesight, hearing, and reflexes decline gradually as you age, driving becomes more and more difficult. When seniors live alone, there’s no one to give them a lift to wherever they want. They have to drive. This may cause dangers to other people and to themselves. On my way to school last year, I was behind a car moving somewhat erratically. First, I thought that the driver was drunk or asleep. However, when driving past him, I recognized he was an elder, maybe 80 years old or more, and his hands were shaking holding the wheel! I was very worried about him. In one case in February 2018, Santia Feketa, 18, and Britney Poindexter, 17, were killed after their pickup was hit