Michigan wllz

Just when should you take the keys from Grandma? When is it time to tell Mom that it’s time for her to stop driving? Edmunds.com has started a series looking at the issue of senior driving.

Interesting that on the day I received tweets about the series from Edmunds, annarbor.com the site’s editorial director, Tony Dearing, also tweeted me a story about a 93-year-old woman who won’t be charged after a fatal collision in a store parking lot led to the death a 61-year-old female pedestrian.

Despite growing numbers on the road, fewer older drivers are actually involved in fatal collisions now than in years past, according to an important new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “The findings are a welcome surprise,” said Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research told Edmunds.

…

“Overall, older drivers are safer drivers because they’re more cautious,” said Anne Dickerson, chair of the occupational therapy department and a geriatric-driving expert at East Carolina University, according to the site. “But there is a certain point at which someone shouldn’t be behind the wheel anymore.”

This is a difficult issue, one that will become even more prevalent as Baby Boomers move into their senior years and their children are faced with the prospect of telling them they have to stop driving.

I wouldn’t want to be in the position of Bernice “Judy” Schoolmaster’s family.

Washtenaw County prosecutors declined to file charges against a 93-year-old woman involved a fatal collision with a pedestrian in a Meijer parking lot in March, Pittsfield Township police said today.

The collision resulted in the death of a 61-year-old Britton area woman.

Investigators say they found no evidence 93-year-old Loretta Garner of Saline was drinking or using drugs when her car struck a grocery cart being pushed by Bernice “Judy” Schoolmaster on March 17

Maybe the answer is more frequent tests for older people. Even this intrusion will likely be meant with resistance from seniors, but it could be done in such a way as to reduce the impact on them. For example, state officials could visit senior centers, so they don’t have to make a special trip to the Secretary of State’s office where they would have to wait in a long line.

I’m of that age. My parents are getting up there in years and I can foresee the day when it’s me taking the keys, just as my mom did from her mother some 25 years ago. Here’s this person who you remember taking you to the zoo, for bike rides, protecting you as you grew and now the tables are turned and you become the protector.