Over at Say Anything, Rob brings up the question of driving for elderly and teens:

What I find interesting is how often we talk about problems with teenage drivers, but ignore problems with senior drivers. Teens may be three times more likely to dry in an auto accident than any other age group, but I wonder which age group hurts or kills other drivers more? I’d be willing to bet its seniors, yet that’s a policy issue few politicians want to tackle.

Why? Because the elderly vote. Teens, on the other hand, are an easy target because they cannot. Or in the case of those over eighteen, mostly do not.

His post was prompted by an editorial in the Bismarck Tribune about raising the driving age for teenagers. Now, in North Dakota, teenagers can start driving at a remarkably early age — 14 — and my argument absolutely is not against raising the driving age there. The Tribune argues for a more graduated program, which makes sense.

Here in Florida, you can get a learner’s permit at 15, and at 16, you can get your license, either by passing a driver’s test or going through a Driver’s Education program. And, as many of you know, we have an extremely high number of seniors here. Which is the bigger problem?

Now, my feelings on the situation are a little bit biased. My brother was killed in a motorcycle accident after an 86-year-old woman turned left into oncoming traffic on one of the busiest streets in the greater Jacksonville area, Blanding Blvd. He slammed into her passenger side door, rolled over her windshield, and landed in the middle of the intersection. She kept driving, right on to Walgreens, and left him there.

She didn’t even know she had hit someone.

Regardless of where you live, stories like these have become more and more common. One of the most famous cases is that of 86-year-old George Weller, who killed 10 people and injured 70 more when he plowed through a farmers market in Santa Monica. In 2004, Carnegie Mellon University and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety published a study spotlighted in a USA Today article on elderly drivers, and the numbers are alarming.

Fatality rates for drivers begin to climb after age 65, according to a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, based on data from 1999-2004. From ages 75 to 84, the rate of about three deaths per 100 million miles driven is equal to the death rate of teenage drivers. For drivers 85 and older, the fatality rate skyrockets to nearly four times higher than that for teens.

The numbers are particularly daunting at a time when the U.S. Census Bureau projects there will be 9.6 million people 85 and older by 2030, up 73% from today. Road safety analysts predict that by 2030, when all baby boomers are at least 65, they will be responsible for 25% of all fatal crashes. In 2005, 11% of fatal crashes involved drivers that old.

… Safety and health specialists are especially concerned about drivers 85 and older, who, federal crash statistics show, are involved in three fatal accidents a day.

“You always hear about teenage (driver) risks being so incredibly high, but to me the amazing thing is there are two clusters you really have to focus on”: teens and elderly drivers, says Paul Fischbeck of the Center for the Study and Improvement of Regulation at Carnegie Mellon.

Normal aging causes medical problems that affect driving. Reflexes, flexibility, visual acuity, memory and the ability to focus all decline with age. Medicines that treat various ailments also make it more difficult to focus and make snap decisions.

Elderly drivers are less likely than other drivers to be in crashes involving high speeds or alcohol, but they are more likely to crash at intersections where they miss a stop sign or turn left in front of oncoming traffic.

“Where single-vehicle rollovers can be described as a young person’s crash, side impact appears to be an old person’s crash,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration researchers Rory Austin and Barbara Faigin wrote in a 2003 study of crash occupants published in the Journal of Safety Research.

Unfortunately, any kind of solution to this problem is met with swift outrage from the elderly and the AARP. Most states don’t require drivers to renew their licenses in person, and only two even require road tests. It’s understandably a sticky situation — not all elderly drivers are bad drivers by any means. One of my grandmothers drives perfectly well, for example, while riding with another of my grandmothers made me fear for my life. But it’s undeniable that as you age, some risks increase. And while some states are willing to require eye exams after a certain age to keep your license, like Florida, it isn’t enough. Poor eyesight is not what makes someone confuse the gas pedal for the brake, or not notice when they’ve run someone over or slammed into another vehicle.

Meanwhile, it’s much easier to focus on problems with teenage drivers or using electronic devices while driving. The difference is that problems teenage drivers have can be corrected with time or experience, whereas diminished cognitive ability cannot be fixed.

I personally find that the most reasonable solution would be to require annual driving tests after a certain age — say, 79 — so that able drivers can continue driving and poor drivers cannot. But politicians have a hard time doing this. And why? Because senior citizens are such a large voting block, one that is growing increasingly larger, and usually opposes such measures. But it’s something that needs to be dealt with, and soon. The elderly population isn’t going to get any smaller, and the problem won’t just go away.