Age Discrimination

Age discrimination is also evident in attempts to restrict older adults' driving. Although most older people are safe drivers, elderly persons are involved in more fatal crashes per miles driven than all but the youngest, most inexperienced drivers. Drivers eighty-five or over are more than ten times as likely to die in a crash than are drivers between the age of forty to forty-nine. Over the next several decades the number of older drivers is expected to double and the number of elderly traffic fatalities is predicted to triple. Concern that older drivers pose a risk to themselves and others leads some politicians to propose ending driving privileges at a set age, such as seventy-five or eighty-five. More common, however, are proposals to treat the licensing of older drivers differently. At least twelve states and the District of Columbia already do this, requiring older drivers to have more frequent vision tests and license renewals. A 1999 Missouri law uses ability rather than age to identify those who are at high risk of being involved in accidents. This law has drawn wide support because it acknowledges that using chronological age to restrict people's options ignores the diversity of older people's individual capabilities.