Older drivers represent the fastest growing segment of the driving population. As this group expands, so too have public safety concerns, given older drivers’ increased rate of motor vehicle collisions per mile driven.
Florida in 2004, passed a law requiring all drivers 80 and older to pass a vision test before they could renew their driver’s license. Since that time, research shows that death rates from car collisions decreased 17% among drivers 80 and older, Gerald McGwin Jr., Ph.D., of the University of Alabama, and colleagues reported in the November issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.
Although this is good news, the results do not appear to actually be linked to the vision acuity of the driver.
Accidents in this age group may be partly attributed to medical, functional, and cognitive impairments, but there is little evidence for an association between visual acuity and motor vehicle collisions.
While the the law removed visually impaired drivers from the road, 93.3% of those who sought license renewal were successful.
Of the older drivers who failed the test, 77% of the 12% , sought vision care and were then able to pass the test.
Some of the elderly drivers who considered themselves to have poor vision may have chosen not to seek renewal believing they could not pass the vision test.
It is also possible that the observed decline in fatalities may result from a variety of other factors, none having anything to do with removing visually impaired drivers from the road, or improving the vision of those who still drive.
Since driving is important to the well being of older adults, future research is needed to find the true mechanism responsible for the decline in accidents.
It is important to ensure that such laws do not remove visually impaired, yet potentially safe, older drivers from the road when in fact the responsible mechanism may not be vision-related, the researchers said.
Roughly 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs each year according to the Center for Disease Control. Because of the staggering demand on homeowners insurance, a growing number of states and municipalities pass laws that do everything from create dangerous dog registries to outright banning of certain dog breeds. Legislators are trying to determine how those laws can be enforced without impinging on the rights of dog owners.
In the meantime, when a dog has attacked someone, there are certain legal rights to which that person is entitled. Whether or not the damages are covered by the pet owner’s homeowners insurance is another issue.
