Program Drives Home Vehicular Safety, Age Issues

For Norma D’Alessandro, the lights started dimming three years ago.

“I had trouble with my eyes,” said the 65-year-old San Clemente resident. “I began experiencing night blindness.”

D’Alessandro took several measures. She began limiting her driving at night. She avoided dangerous roads. And she took a course called 55 Alive that, among other things, saves her and her husband $280 a year on auto insurance.

Sponsored by the American Assn. of Retired Persons, the course is offered at senior centers and hospitals throughout the county and graduated about 7,400 drivers last year.

It is aimed at drivers 55 and older who, according to statistics, are responsible for more than their share of accidents and citations. The course includes everything from advice on driving under the influence of medications to special calisthenics for limbering up stiff necks that prevent some older drivers from looking behind them while backing up.

Although statistics show that people tend to drive less as they get older, thereby accounting for fewer actual accidents, the accident rates per distance driven begin to rise around age 55, with a dramatic jump occurring at the age of 80.

During recent years in California, for instance, drivers 55 and older have averaged .71 accidents per 100,000 miles driven, compared to only .37 accidents for drivers age 20 to 54, according to statistics supplied by the California Highway Patrol and Department of Motor Vehicles. The only group with a higher accident rate is drivers age 16 to 19, who averaged .84 accidents per 100,000 miles.

Experts attribute the high accident rates among older drivers to a number of physical and mental changes associated with aging. As people age, vision begins to fade. Hearing decreases. And the gradual loss of sensory acuity increases the amount of time required to process information and make decisions.

While younger drivers tend to commit traffic violations such as speeding, drunk driving or reckless driving, the experts say, older ones are more likely to fail to observe the right of way, make dangerous left turns or lane changes, or run stop signs.

“These abilities decline very gradually,” said Joan Katz, the program’s coordinator for Orange County.

“All of a sudden, you get confused, and you’re not able to step on the brake as quickly. We try to relieve people of these frustrations by making them aware of what’s happening and how to compensate.”

Among the bits of advice offered in the course: Allow plenty of time and plan ahead by charting your course in advance; avoid driving in especially stressful situations such as during peak traffic hours or late at night; and learn to recognize and accept that the day will come when your best course of action will be to hang up your keys.

“We present them with different options to limit their driving,” said Katz, who remembers one student who took the course at 90.

AARP officials say insurance industry studies indicate that graduates of their course file 10% fewer accident claims. However, a 1995 study by the Department of Motor Vehicles found that such courses do not appreciably decrease the number of fatal accidents in which older drivers are involved.

Yet legislation in 34 states, including California, now requires insurance companies to offer discounts to drivers who, at least once every three years, take the AARP course or similar programs such as the one offered by the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Locally, Katz said, the rate reductions usually amount to at least 5%.

“As a senior, that money means a lot to me,” said Doris Fortner, 69, who recently took the course for the second time at the Dana Point Senior Center.

The course itself costs $8 for two four-hour segments.

“It’s a refresher for safety,” D’Alessandro said. “More elderly people should be aware.”

Virginia Crosley, 74, said that she decided to take the AARP course in part to learn how to cope with the increasing complexities of modern commuting.

“Sometimes I think my reflexes aren’t what they should be,” the San Clemente resident said, “but generally, I consider myself a good driver.”

Although she said she has never had an accident and has received only one ticket, driving in California today is a good deal more challenging than it was in 1942 when she first got her license, Crosley said.

“Today there is too much traffic, too many people and a lot less courtesy,” she said. “When you consider how many people are drinking and taking drugs, it’s a lot more dangerous out there.”

For Dorothy Nido, 70, of Monarch Beach, like D’Alessandro, the changes in driving abilities have centered on vision.

“I don’t drive at night anymore because of depth perception,” she said. “I don’t see well.”

And David Brown, 58, said that he took the course to, among other things, begin compensating for a perceived loss of mental and physical agility in driving.

“You’re not as quick as you were,” said Brown of Capistrano Beach. “You’re just not what you were when you were 45.”

Which is precisely the point, according to Dave Dugan, 65, a former CBS correspondent and retired college professor who teaches the course in Dana Point.

“Every age group has its problems,” he said recently, as class members bent their necks and twisted their torsos in preparation for safer driving. “We want seniors to take care of theirs.”