Impaired Driving Due To Age

855 Words4 Pages
Impaired Driving: Age-Related Vehicles have been a great advancement to society since their creation. Without them, we would not be able to work far from home, take vacations hundreds of miles away or make frequent trips to town. But with having the privilege to use these advanced machines comes responsibility. Who should be able to use a car and how should this answer be determined? Motorized vehicles weigh thousands of pounds and can do massive damage if used improperly or operated by a person who is physically impaired. As people age, the body changes and this can conflict with the ability to drive a vehicle. Hearing, vision, motor skills, and physical health can all affect the way a person drives. Vision is probably one of the most crucial components when driving a car and just like physical strength, our eyes also decrease as we reach old age. The ability to focus on close up objects becomes more difficult, due to presbyopia. This is the loss of focusing ability because of the hardening of the lens in the eye (All About Vision). Trouble seeing can affect older drivers’ ability to recognize traffic signs and signals. Aging also causes a loss of peripheral vision, meaning that the size of visual field decreases (All About Vision). This increases the risk for car accidents because of the lost ability to see far distances. Decreased color vision also declines in old age. This can cause the elderly to have trouble distinguishing colors in lights and other important aspects. I think that yearly eye exams should be stressed more to the elderly, and that every elderly person should have to go get tested every year in order for them to get their license renewed. Hearing is important when driving anything from a bike to an 18-wheeler. Sounds such as sirens give warning to ambulances, fire trucks and police cars. As we age, different

More about Impaired Driving Due To Age

Open Document