Willa Kane: Elderly should be tested to drive

I recently renewed my 83-year-old mother’s driver’s license using the customer friendly online process provided by DOT.

At first we were delighted at the ease of accomplishing this previously frustrating and time-consuming task. But as the reality of what we’d just done settled in, we agreed that putting convenience before public safety might not be the best course of action.

It has been five years since anyone assessed my mother’s ability to drive a car, and it will be five more years at age 88 before that happens again. My mother is a good driver today, but there is no guarantee that she will be five years out.

Common sense suggests to me that assessing senior drivers is just as important as assessing those who are just beginning to drive. An occasional driving test and eye exam after a certain age might be a good place to start.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 7:27 PM with the headline "Willa Kane: Elderly should be tested to drive."