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Crash
revives debate over driving tests for the elderly
By
Michael Cabanatuan San Francisco Chronicle, July 17, 2003
The horrifying accident at the Santa Monica farmers' market raises questions over whether senior citizens should be required to pass periodic behind-the-wheel driving tests as a condition for keeping their licenses. California law requires only that drivers over 70 pass written and vision tests at a Department of Motor Vehicles office every five years as a condition for renewing their licenses. Past efforts to impose tougher standards have died under pressure from lobbyists representing senior citizen groups. The most recent effort was
sparked by another fatal accident in Santa Monica. It was pushed by
then-state Sen. Tom Hayden, a Democrat from Santa Monica.
The Hayden bill was named the Brandi Mitock Safe Driving Act. It was named for Brandi Mitock, 15, who was hit and killed while crossing a Santa Monica street by a 96-year-old driver who had a history of strokes and had last taken a behind-the-wheel driving test in 1918. Two other fatal accidents involving senior drivers in late 1998 also spurred the bill. In Santa Paula (Ventura County), a car driven by a 75-year- old woman hit and killed a 4-year-old boy being pushed in a crosswalk by his grandmother. And in Lodi, a motorcycle police officer and father of two young daughters was struck and killed while chasing a speeder by a car driven by an 86-year-old man who pulled into his path.
Hayden's bill would have
required a behind-the-wheel test for drivers 75 and older in addition to
the written and vision tests. It would also have shortened the length of
time between license renewals from five years to four, with that interval
gradually shrinking to one year when the driver turned 90.
But the senior lobby, mainly the
American Association of Retired Persons, argued that the bill amounted to
age discrimination and pressured the Legislature into watering it down and
eliminating all reference to age. It ended up establishing a minimum
vision standard and allowed the DMV to consider comments from relatives,
physicians and police when deciding whether to renew a license.
"There was a lot of
pressure from the senior lobby and AARP," recalled Rocky Rushing,
former chief of staff for Hayden. "If this
incident spurs any legislators to take up this charge again, they would be
well advised to study what Sen. Hayden faced when proposing a bill that
would have made the roads safer for everyone, including senior
citizens," Rushing said. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
