A letter (June 18) suggested that if teenagers have an age to start driving, the elderly should have an age to stop.
This 85-year-old lady drove too long, she says. She feels capable of driving but incapable of making quick decisions; also, the elderly are subject to strokes or heart attacks, she says.
That's true, but you can't sit around waiting to have a stroke, heart attack, snake bite or whatever. I enjoy driving at 90 and need to drive to Carolina Beach to see relatives. When asked, "Was there a lot of traffic?" I explain, "You don't need all of the highway, just a place to put your car."
Helen B. Walker
Greensboro
Comments (6)
Helen:
As a kid, I hated older drivers. Now, as an older driver, I have a different perspective - funny how the more you learn the less you know.
Posted by James D. Rockefeller | June 23, 2005 5:00 AM
Helen,
You go girl!! And keep going, and going, and going!
Posted by Herbie | June 23, 2005 8:52 AM
What Helen forgot to tell everyone is that she drove done to CB at 35 mph straddling the left lane. She caused eight accidents because she couldn't see over the steering wheel or see her side and rear view mirrors even while sitting on the two phone books she used as a booster seat.
Come on, Helen is the exception and not the rule for 90 year olds on the road. Truthfully, how many people her age do you know who can get in a car, much less drive one? What if that stroke or coronary comes while they are driving? Yeah, it can happen to anyone, but them old folks like Helen are more likely to have it happen because they are on borrowed time friends.
Just let them go down to the DMV, oh let's say, every one to two years and prove they can handle a vehicle. Realistically, when you get old things start falling off the wagon. Eyesight, hearing, relfexes, and coordination leave you quicker than you realize.
Remember, driving is a privilege, not a right. One of the first rights we have is to life. If Helen and her contemporaries want to endanger mine and my family's she's going to have to prove that she can maintain driving privileges before she infringes on my rights.
Mama said, "Sometimes ya gotta know when to give it up and let someone else do the driving."
Posted by mymamasaid | June 23, 2005 9:34 AM
I'm inclined to agree with "mymamasaid" on some things, although I wouldn't be so coarse about it. Helen may be the exception to the rule and driving is a privilege.
Driving is a privilege and not a right. An institution can not deny you rights, but may deny you privileges. Therefore, it is not discrimination. The DMV and the courts have the authority to deny people the privilege to drive. If your eyesight is poor enough you will not get a license.
Why is it that we can deny the privilege to the youth, but not to the elderly? The privilege to drive is denied to the youth because they haven't acquired the skill to drive. If someone loses that skill through an accident or disease, that person is denied the privilege of driving. Why do the elderly get to keep on driving if they lose that skill?
Although I am just around the corner from that loss of skill, I would welcome a year or two year test to determine if I am skillful enough to maintain control of a potentially deadly machine. I know I don't want to be the "old coot" who killed a thirty-year-old mother of three because I had to drive to the mall to take my walk.
I don't think it's asking much of someone of an advanced age and diminishing physical capacity to assure the state and its citizens of his or her skill in controlling a vehicle. If you can pass the test, you drive. If you can't, you don't drive. It's as simple as that.
Posted by Joe Schmoe | June 23, 2005 9:57 AM
I would agree, if you can pass the test, then you have the right. I would hate for an elderly person having to purchase a fake license to actually drive :))
Posted by Carolyn Huffines | June 26, 2005 6:02 AM
I agree w/Carolyn.
Posted by steve | June 26, 2005 10:08 PM