Driving requires quick reflexes and good motor skills. Families face difficulties with the elderly, when safety comes into question.
Elderly people who have always been independent, can run into family difficulties and tension when it appears it is time to give up the driver’s license and rely on others, according to a Washington Post article “When our elderly mother refused to stop driving, we took drastic action.”
The author’s mother loved to drive.
When she was 80, she bought herself a brand new Lexus. The problem was she had become a terrible and unsafe driver by that point, according to her family. She often had near collisions with pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles.
The author and his brother tried to talk her into giving up driving, but she refused.
That led them to take the drastic action of reporting her as dangerous to the New York DMV.
She was ordered to take a license test. While she passed the written portion, she failed the driving portion horribly and, as a result, her license was taken away.
Elderly people and families need to have conversations about when it is time to stop driving.
