PD Editorial: Driving age

<p>Statistics show that most senior citizens are careful, law-abiding and safe drivers — until they aren't.</p><p>The problem is determining when that transition occurs, the moment when someone is no longer safe behind the wheel. In the worst cases, it occurs after a serious accident.</p><p>As Staff Writer Julie Johnson reported, Sonoma County has witnessed three such serious accidents recently, each of which occurred not on the road but as a senior driver was pulling into a parking spot.</p><p>In one case, an 86-year-old driver attempting to park at Montgomery Village crashed through the glass entrance and window display at Copperfield's Books. A similar accident occurred three days before that at G and G Market when an 84-year-old man lost control and hit several cars, skipped a curb and ran through several planter boxes.</p><p>The most serious of the three happened on Nov. 12, when an 80-year-old man pulling into a store in Windsor accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake and pinned a 36-year-old woman against a concrete pillar. The woman, Janine Faloni, ended up losing her left lower leg and foot and is still recovering.</p><p>In each of these cases, the driver lost his or license, but it may have come a day too late.</p><p>Some years ago, we supported the introduction of a bill that would have required drivers over 75 to take a road test to renew their driver's licenses. A Field Poll at the time showed 80 percent of Californians supported the idea. And we still believe that makes sense. But given the power of the senior lobby in California, we recognize that the chances of a bill like that succeeding today are slim and none.</p><p>Thus the burden falls to the families and friends of seniors — and the seniors themselves — to communicate on when the come has come to put away the driver's license.</p><p>The state Department of Motor Vehicles also needs to make sure that the pleas of family members — concerned about the driving skills of a defiant loved one — are heeded.</p><p>Finally, the burden also falls on the larger community to make sure seniors who give up their license have transportation alternatives to ensure that they aren't left to a life of isolation.</p><p>Harvey Wiseman, the 84-year-old man involved in the G and G Market accident, notes that he has no living family members and no one to assist him. He now is adjusting to taking a taxi.</p><p>“That's the one good thing about a cab,” he told Johnson. “At least you have someone to help you” with the groceries.</p><p>There must be a better alternative.</p>