Elderly Drivers
The topic of elderly drivers has become part of common conversation with political standpoints in Florida within the past few years. Its rise of importance has had little effect on settling the arguments. If anything, it has done nothing but complicate matters further by introducing new interest from senior citizen organizations. Organizations such as the AARP have risen to fame defending the freedom of the elderly who demand to continue cruising the highways. As the issue has gained popularity, it seems reasonable that decisions must soon be made to decide the fate of the current system of detecting incapable elderly drivers. It would be in the best interest of drivers of all ages and pedestrians if mandatory testing of elderly drivers over the age of sixty-five be instituted biannually throughout the state of Florida.Many argue that the percentage of the elderly community that is licensed is much lower than that of the younger groups. This means that the elderly as a group have less licensed drivers out of their total population when compared to the percentage of licensed drivers existing in younger groups. The reasoning behind this is that the small percentage of elderly drivers cannot
A major factor in favor of mandatory testing of the elderly drivers involves the sheer number of this age group in the state of Florida. Because the state of Florida is one of the major retirement states in the country, 2.3 million of Florida's population is elderly, over the age of sixty-five (Lade 1A). That equals over eighteen percent of Florida's licensed drivers (Coburn 24-25). This number is expected to double within the next thirty years, amounting to a grand total of 4.6 million elderly drivers flooding the highways in Florida by the year 2031 (Coburn 24-25). Surely a group this abundant deserves more careful attention and order. The astonishing abundance of elderly drivers is an issue in itself. Restrictions must be set to the elderly driving community. This group is increasing in size rapidly. Laws must be set in place "before the first demographic blip of baby boomers flood the highways" (Brataas 1E). With the projected increase in the number of elderly drivers, all are at risk. According to Brian O'Neil, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, personal automobile transportation will be absolutely necessary in twenty years in the development of Florida's transit system. Mandatory testing should be required for the high-risk elderly group over the age of sixty-five to decrease the amount of unfit, licensed drivers on the road (Brataas 1E). be filtered any further. Also, the elderly drive fewer miles per licensed driver than the average, meaning that the small part of the elderly community that is licensed drives less than the younger groups of drivers. These two arguments combined are believed to be worthy of lowering the importance of the issue in setting laws to this group. Clearly it would be a profitable decision which would protect the lives of innocent would-be victims of the elderly driving community to require that elderly drivers throughout the state of Florida, those over the age of sixty-five, take a mandatory road test every two years. Through explaining the swiftly increasing elderly population the fatal crashes caused by the small percentage of the elderly community that are licensed, and the medical problems that effect the elderly as they age I have hopefully proved that the current system is simply insufficient. The havoc that incapable elderly drivers are causing on highways is detrimental to the transit system as a whole. They are scarring the driving population with unnecessary deaths an
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Approximate Word count = 1655
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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