Debate heats up over elderly drivers

SHILOH, Ill. — After an 84-year-old driver plowed through an elementary-school lunchroom last week, killing an 8-year-old boy, his mother pressed lawmakers to bar the elderly from getting behind the wheel.

"We very much support a mandatory limit on the driving age for seniors," Amanda Wesling wrote in a missive directed at Grace Keim, who authorities say was en route to a driving class at a senior-citizens center Monday when she struck Ryan Wesling.

Wesling's plea raises new questions about how old is too old to drive, an issue state legislatures continue to contend with in the wake of similar tragedies in recent years. While many states have enacted or are considering tougher testing for older drivers, they're weighing those changes against the rights of millions of older people to have the independence a license allows.

Among the incidents prompting calls for change:

• In November, an 89-year-old man whose car hurtled through a farmers market in California in 2003, killing 10 people and injuring more than 70 others, received five years of probation because a judge deemed him too ill to go to prison.

• In August, a sport-utility vehicle driven by an 89-year-old man plowed into pedestrians and vendors at an open-air public market in Rochester, N.Y., injuring 10 people.

• In October 2005, an 87-year-old woman on her way to the doctor in North Dakota smashed her car into the hospital's lobby, injuring five women.

Older drivers

Studies have shown that vision, reaction time and other driving skills can diminish as drivers age.

Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show that older drivers generally are as safe as other age groups until they reach 75, when they tend to have more accidents.

Drivers 85 and older are about as likely to be involved in a fatal crash as those 16 to 19, but they're more likely to die than others in car crashes because their bodies are frailer, according to the institute.

The Associated Press

At least 24 states and the District of Columbia have laws singling out older drivers for special attention, from required road tests to vision examinations, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Washington is not one of the 24 states.

In Connecticut, there's a legislative push to require automatic retesting of anyone older than 75 who has had more than two wrecks in a calendar year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In New York, a pending measure would halve to two years the renewal period for anyone older than 70.

Illinois has some of the nation's toughest restrictions on older drivers, joining New Hampshire in requiring a road test for renewals after age 75. Illinois also is among at least 15 states that have an accelerated renewal schedule for older drivers, requiring renewals every two years from age 81 to 86, and every year after that.

Democratic Illinois state Rep. Kurt Granberg said that setting an age for drivers to hand over their keys wouldn't be appropriate because "everyone's different."

Advocacy groups for the elderly urge states not to overreact to each incident, noting accidents happen in every age group and taking away older people's licenses could rob them of their independence.

"The issue is not age; it has to do with the person's physical and mental limitations, and that goes beyond age," said Beverly Moore of Illinois' AARP.

Keim's license was up for renewal March 3, her 85th birthday, and her driving record shows no citations, according to state records.