Dangerous drivers: Aging boomers face a tough road ahead
By Cindy Harnett, Canwest News Service
RCMP Const. Carolin Luchuck was in a marked vehicle escorting Olympic flame torchbearers through the streets of Greater Victoria last October when an 86-year-old driver broke through the motorcade and side-swiped her.
Luchuck was in an RCMP pickup -- with its lights flashing and signs reading Police Escort: Do Not Pass. The impact of the collision broke the truck's front axle and injured the police officer.
"She didn't know she had hit me and kept driving," Luchuck said. "After being chased down, she still didn't realize she had hit someone."
It's a typical story, police say: Older drivers with cognitive impairment or dementia who mix up gas and brake pedals, drive the wrong way or become overwhelmed turning left at busy intersections, only to be confused afterward about what happened.
By 2036, the number of senior citizens in Canada will more than double from 2009.
For the first time in almost a century, these seniors will surpass the number of children age 14 and under, according to Statistics Canada.
The worry is not their age, but the medical conditions that typically accompany old age and can interfere with safe driving, said Ian Gillespie, president of the B.C. Medical Association.
Those feisty baby boomers are expected to drive more often, and for a longer period of time, than any other generation before them.
"The reality is we are outliving our driving ability -- statistically from six to 10 years," said David Dunne, director of road safety operations for the B.C. Automobile Association Traffic Safety Foundation. "Before, we died early and drove until we dropped. Now we're living longer but our functional abilities decline."
According to the Canadian Study on Health and Aging, 70 per cent of people age 85 and older have a cognitive impairment or dementia.
A person's crash rate per kilometre travelled starts to increase at the age of 65. By the time someone turns 75 or 80 years old, their crash rate equals or surpasses that of teenage drivers.
As well, drivers with cognitive impairments -- caused by a head injury, stroke or dementia, for example -- might lack the insight to take corrective action even after they have a collision caused by that impairment, Dunne said.
More elderly drivers with medical issues on the road longer means more crashes and deaths, unless something changes, Gillespie said.
"We know the number of older drivers is going to more than double by 2030 and if there is no change in current crash fatality rates, the number of older-driver fatalities will increase by 300 to 400 per cent," said Gillespie, who has decades of experience in traffic safety.
More than 480 Canadian seniors died and more than 16,000 were injured in motor vehicle collisions in 2005, according to Transport Canada.
The statistics cry out for seniors to take more responsibility in planning for their possible retirement from driving, Gillespie said.
"I think it's important doctors and patients have a dialogue early on regarding how they would prepare for the possibilities of not driving because that can happen suddenly and unexpectedly -- from a visual problem to a stroke," Gillespie said.
Following Luchuck's crash on Oct. 30, 2009, she was convinced that all elderly drivers should be required to take a road test. It's the best way to care for seniors and protect them from the fright and guilt -- and possible injury or death -- that can result from car crashes, she maintains.
In Canada, there is no standard approach to testing seniors for driving fitness. In Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick there is no age at which an older driver must be re-tested or have a medical exam for driving. In the Yukon, the age requirement for a medical exam starts at 70. In Alberta, Quebec, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Newfoundland and Labrador, it starts at age 75.
In B.C. and Ontario, an 80-year-old driver must submit to a medical fitness exam.
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Your limitations
Unlike the typical aging process, dementia affects your ability to know your own limitations.
You might be at risk if you:
# are unaware of driving errors
# have close calls
# drive too slowly
# are unaware of other vehicles
# miss traffic signs
# get lost or confused
# confuse the brake and gas pedals
# Or if other drivers often honk
