“Mom, it’s not just about you. You could hurt somebody. You could hurt a child.”
That last part got to the woman who had spent her life educating youngsters. But it was a conversation and an action she resented for the rest of her life.
She’d jab at me about it in her snarky way: “I’d drive myself, but you’ve got my keys.”
Dad gave up driving on his own. He had to deal with it after Grandpa drove downhill into a guy’s backyard, was confronted and wanted to keep going. Dad “dealing with it” included fixing the ruts in the guy’s backyard to avoid police or insurance involvement.
Getting a senior to willingly give up driving when you know they are in trouble is one of the toughest things to live with. Their little brat just took away their independence, just like when that kid was born. Their little brat thinks they know it all, just like when they were a teenager.
Experts advise getting an intermediary: doctor, driving examiner or government, someone with expertise or the law behind them so a family member need not be the villain.
By the way, I tried that with Mom. She aced the test given by a private instructor, which he said is common because some driving skills get hard-wired and older drivers avoid trouble by limiting where and when they drive. She kept driving for about a year until one cold Sunday night — she’d agreed not to drive after dark — we were alerted by the garage cam and waiting at her house for hours. She rolled up about 8 p.m., got out barefooted and said she’d been looking for something to eat. I took her keys.
Which brings me to this point: Illinois is one of five states that don’t allow family members to report issues with an elderly driver. It is the only state that mandates driving tests based on age — for those 79 and older.
Both those would change if Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias gets a bill through the General Assembly. House Bill 1226 is nearing a final vote in the Illinois House and must advance to the Illinois Senate and then the governor’s desk.
The mandatory driving test age would be raised to 87. Family members could report driving concerns.
“This legislation would allow family members, who have the best line of sight into a person’s cognitive state, to report those concerns and enable action,” Giannoulias said. “Either get them tested in a timely manner or take their driving privileges away entirely.”
Overall, older drivers are among the safest. In 2022, drivers older than 65 were 22% of the U.S. driving population but responsible for 14% of fatal accidents. But there were 8,572 fatalities involving older drivers in 2022, up 42% in a decade.
In Illinois, drivers 75 and older had the lowest crash rate of all age groups older than 16 — including those “kids” ages 70 to 74, state data for 2023 shows. It also shows 658,000 drivers older than 75 on Illinois roads, which is 140,000 more than a decade earlier.
But it raises the question: Are Illinois’ tough rules on older drivers working?
Illinois mandated tests for drivers at age 75 but raised it to 79 during the pandemic. Now it wants to raise the test age to 87, but how is age discrimination at 87 any better than at 79 or 75?
Well, we Illinoisans do discriminate based on age. Driving tests are every four years until age 81, when they are every two years and then at age 87 every year.
Limiting the freedoms of someone who has earned a place of respect should be uncomfortable. Blanket rules tend to hurt the innocent more than the guilty.
When Illinois finds itself measured in superlatives such as “only” or “one of five,” then something’s wrong. Giving family members’ observations some weight when they need help taking the keys from an older driver is a positive move that still lets the driver prove their abilities.
Mandating tests by age is less defensible. It is age discrimination.
Testing some drivers every four years, some every two years and some every year is hard to defend. If Illinois brings the observations of family members into the equation, doesn’t that lessen the need for the state to create different standards?
It’s not unreasonable for the state to ask that I prove my driving abilities, but it worried less about me when I was an inexperienced teen and a reckless 20-something than it will when I’m an octogenarian. By legislating based on age, the state slights those with the most experience, who have contributed the most and who are most likely to be responsible and decide to stop driving on their own — something I expect my children to remind me of someday when I act more like my mom than my dad about those car keys.
Brad Weisenstein is managing editor of the Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
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