When you are elderly, driving can be your lifeline that keeps you active and allows you to enjoy lots of freedom. Unfortunately, it can also be dangerous as our response time gets slower as we age. It is never an easy decision to let go of your driver’s license or convince a parent or loved one to do so. But, it can be very important to understand when the time is right to avoid any accidents that could injure yourself or somebody else. Wrongful death attorneys like Lamber Goodnow are usually busy with cases involving the elderly when it comes to car accidents.
Read on to see if any of these signs are relevant to you as they may mean you should think about turning in your driver’s license. If you only experience some of them, then before you give it up look into some driving lessons to evaluate your ability to continue driving.
Confusing the gas and brakes
Usually, when there is an accident where a person drives their car into a building or house it is because they confused the brake and gas. When they need to stop, they instead press the accelerator harder and lose control of the car. This is very common among older folks.
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That confusion comes from slow response times, but there is also a physical factor in play sometimes, as well. To properly drive, a driver keeps their heel on the floor and uses their toes to press the proper pedal. If you need to lift your foot off of the ground to move from the gas to the brake, then this is a sign of loss of limb strength.
The time it takes to move the leg over could be enough time to cause an accident.
Not keeping up with traffic
Driving too slow is almost as dangerous as driving too fast. Slow driving that can’t keep the flow of traffic moving is a sign that there is a lack of confidence. Since it takes a little longer to process rapid changes, it makes sense to slow down to allow for more time to react. However, if you are always driving too slow then you could cause an accident particularly when other drivers are not expecting a slow vehicle.
Not signaling or keeping the signal on
Not signaling can cause an accident much easier than you realize. Without a signal, other drivers can’t properly react to your movements. On the other hand, if you don’t turn off the signal, then they also think you are going to turn when you, in fact, aren’t. Either way, it causes ripe conditions for an accident.
And when you leave your signal on, it signifies a lack of awareness of your surroundings. This may just seem like a minor annoyance to other drivers, but it really underlines the fact that there is some dissonance at play and your mental state is not ideal for driving.
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