Elderly drivers: balancing public safety with permanent personal mobility.

• Author: Aplin, Garrick F.D.

Anna Badaracco, twenty-three years old, was walking along the sidewalk at two o'clock on a Monday afternoon in August 2006, when a white Lexus suddenly veered off the road, jumped up onto the sidewalk, and struck Anna from behind, killing her. (1) The driver of the Lexus was an eighty-four-year-old woman who, according to Anna's father, was "an accident waiting to happen." (2) The criminal proceeding that followed uncovered evidence that the elderly driver had "uncorrected hearing problems, ... a recent diagnosis of macular degeneration and frequent, extended periods of room-spinning dizziness." (3) In addition to hearing, vision, and dizziness problems, her "frailty" was "obvious." (4) Beyond revealing what could be characterized as age-related deficiencies, the proceeding also showed that the elderly woman had a history of dangerous driving in her home state of Florida. (5) Despite the multiple warning signs, it was not until Anna Badaracco lost her life that the elderly driver in question relinquished her driver's license. (6) The cost of maintaining that small slice of freedom was high. Badaracco was a graduate of Northwestern University, where she earned Phi Beta Kappa honors and competed in field hockey and track. (7) She also had planned to obtain her master's degree at the London School of Economics and had aspirations of eventually earning a Ph.D. (8) She had just completed a year in Manaus, Brazil, where she taught English, before returning home in the summer of 2006, when her life was tragically cut short. (9)

The resulting outrage following Anna's death was predictable. Joseph Badaracco, the victim's father, noted he would not object to a prison sentence for his daughter's killer, but he also contemplated the tragedy from the perspective of the elderly driver's family. (10) Ultimately, criminal action, as a response to his young daughter's death, seemed to fail as a solution for all involved. Instead, the grieving father looked to how such an unfortunate accident could be prevented: "[P]erhaps Anna's tragedy and the many others like it will encourage families and governments to take steps to test elderly drivers and get the dangerous ones off the roads." (11) Mr. Badaracco's words reference the fact that, sadly, his family is not the only one in America to have suffered such a devastating loss; numerous similar accounts have received public attention in the past. (12) Nor was Mr. Badaracco alone, in the wake of Anna's death, in his voiced desire for a more responsible screening process of elderly drivers; a local editorial echoed Mr. Badaracco's call for action. (13) Yet, despite the commonly felt desire for more testing and stricter licensing standards, most states have refused to take meaningful regulatory action. (14)

Unfortunately for state legislators, this issue will not disappear any time soon; in fact, it is likely that the number of deadly traffic accidents involving seniors will only increase. The primary reason is that, as a result of the aging baby-boom generation, the United States of America is "in the midst of a profound demographic change: the rapid aging of its population, as reflected by an increasing proportion of persons aged 65 and older." (15) By 2025, it is estimated that 18.2% of the American population will be at least sixty-five years old, an increase from 12.4% of the population in 2000. (16) A second factor, compounding the first, is that this same large, aging generation has enjoyed significant personal mobility via the automobile throughout their lives and, not surprisingly, wish to continue driving despite their advanced age. (17) However, because of the body's reaction to increasing age, the elderly class's driving capability, as well as their bodies' ability to withstand automobile accidents, may be impaired. (18) Therefore, increased testing and more stringent standards for the licensing of elderly drivers are needed.

This Note examines the possibility of strengthening existing state licensing standards for elderly drivers (19) in order to more effectively protect the entire general population, including the elderly, and also examines the need for alternative sources of mobility resulting from the inevitable increase in citizens who will no longer hold driver's licenses. Part I discusses elderly drivers in more detail, including the deadly risk inherently associated with an increasingly older driving population, as well as the effect of aging on the ability to drive. Part II discusses and analyzes the current range of the states' statutory responses to the risk embodied by the elderly driving population. It focuses on licensing renewal procedures--highlighting the more stringent Illinois procedure, the more lenient Florida procedure, and examining the various other procedures employed by the states. (20) Part III addresses the probable obstacles to additional licensing requirements for the elderly, including constitutional discrimination issues and the powerful political voice comprised of, and on behalf of, the elderly. Finally, Part IV proposes solutions to the problem represented by an older driving population. The primary solution concerns various reformations of the licensing procedures for elderly drivers. The secondary solution outlines necessary alternative transportation options for seniors who will no longer be permitted to drive under the more stringent proposed licensing standards.

1. THE PROBLEM OF AN INCREASINGLY OLDER DRIVING POPULATION

   1. The Aging of the General Population and the Driving Population

      Both the general population and the driving population are increasing in age, a trend that began in 1950, continues today, and promises to endure well into the future. (21) This trend is largely the result of the so-called "baby-boom generation," delineated by those born between 1946 and 1964. (22) The number of persons in America aged sixty-five and older represented 8.1% of the total population in 1950, 10.5% in 1975, and 12.4% in 2000, constituting a general trend in recent history of a slow, but steady, increase in the number of older Americans. (23) But as the "baby-boom generation" now approaches the age of sixty-five, that percentage is projected to increase dramatically to 18.2% in 2025 and to 20.6% in 2050.24 In numerical terms, this projected percentage means the population of those sixty-five and older is expected to increase from roughly thirty-five million people in 2000, to about fifty-five million people in 2020, and to about eighty-seven million people in 2050. (25) In addition to the factor of a large and aging baby-boom generation, increased life expectancy has contributed to a larger elderly population. (26) It is overwhelmingly clear that "older adults are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population." (27)

      As a logical result of this continually expanding older population, the driving population is aging as well. (28) In 2006, thirty million people aged sixty-five and older were licensed to drive in the United States, representing an 18% increase from ten years earlier. (29) over the same ten-year period, "the total number of licensed drivers increased by only 13[%]." (30) As such, in 2006, the number of drivers aged sixty-five and older represented 15% of the total number of licensed drivers, up from 14% in 1996. (31) Already, the effect of the "baby-boom generation" is beginning to manifest itself in the number of older licensed drivers. (32)

   2. Statistics Representing the Relative Danger Posed by Elderly Drivers

      While the numbers concerning the increasing age of both the general and driving population are clear, statistical analyses concerning fatal accidents involving older drivers offer mixed results. Opponents of applying stricter licensing standards solely to elderly drivers rather than to all drivers, reasoning that the elderly are unfairly singled out for such disparate treatment, can point to the statistics regarding the number of fatal accidents per licensed driver. The rate of fatal accidents per licensed driver for the age group of sixty-five and older is the lowest such rate when compared to the age groups of twenty-four and younger (which is not surprisingly the highest) and twenty-five to sixty-four. (33) Furthermore, that rate of fatal accidents per licensed driver for drivers aged sixty-five and older has actually decreased slightly from 1995 to 2005. (34)

      Upon deeper analysis, however, this data might not be sufficiently representative of the danger posed by elderly drivers. First, while a person may be over the age of sixty-five and possess a license, he or she may not actually drive (35)--perhaps as a self-imposed revocation of driving privileges in response to a recognition of a decreased driving ability. This possibility can thus distort the statistic in terms of being representative of the actual number of licensed drivers on the street. Second, some older drivers avoid driving at riskier times, when there is a greater chance of being involved in an accident, such as at night or during rush hour. (36) Third, just as elderly drivers tend to avoid other risk factors, they are far less likely to be intoxicated, which consequently leads to fewer accidents but is entirely disassociated with the inherent ability to drive safely. (37) Finally, older drivers tend to drive significantly fewer miles than younger drivers, providing less of an opportunity to be involved in a fatal accident. (38)

      Therefore, when examining the possible danger posed by elderly drivers, the more appropriate measurement concerning the number of fatal accidents involving elderly drivers is the rate of fatal accidents per miles driven. This statistic is more representative of the relative risk involved when an elderly person gets behind the wheel because the risk factors for accidents not generally associated with elderly drivers, such as driving during rush hour or driving while intoxicated, are discounted. The rate of...