Should Senior Citizens Have to Retake the Driving Test?

Whether seniors must retake the motorist's test is a really interesting and controversial subject. Although many individuals feel that singling out a specific group for special treatment is discriminatory, I think this is surpassed by the safety issues included.

Elderly individuals are infamously bad motorists, and have a disproportionate variety of mishaps. With the exception of brand-new chauffeurs, as a group elderly people have the greatest accident rate. One reason why this might be so is that older people generally received their licenses decades earlier, and are potentially not familiar with the new traffic laws.

Nevertheless, this is most likely not the significant aspect. It is most likely that elders are less skilled motorists since of their diminished sensory capability and slower processing speed.

Hearing and vision tend to become less sharp with age, and as a result older people might not see objects in their path, or hear warning horns. Furthermore, their reflexes tend to be slower. That is, even if they do hear or see dangerous objects, their slower reaction time might prevent them from responding in time to avoid the danger.

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In addition, elderly drivers (perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the above) tend to drive too slowly, often considerably slower than the posted speed limit. Their excessive caution and slow pace tends to irritate other drivers, who may swerve or react angrily, which may increase the possibility of accidents.

I believe that all senior citizens should retake the entire driving test including the vision, written and road tests after they reach age 65 and every three years thereafter.

Should they fail, I believe their licenses should be revoked. They should be allowed to take driver's education classes, but they should not be permitted to drive until they are able to pass the driving test. Hopefully this proposal will eliminate many of the careless accident-prone drivers, and decrease the number of motor vehicle injuries and deaths.