I am going to talk to you about why older drivers should have restrictions.
Australia is an ageing population and as you can see from this graph people are living longer, this means that there are lots of older drivers on our roads. A study in Queensland found that the accidents caused by older drivers could be due to a range of age-related declines like deterioration in sensory, cognitive and motor abilities, medical and neurological conditions. As you can see on this graph, due to this decline, older drivers are at a much higher risk of crashing, particularly those aged over 75 years. I divided this wide range of factors into physical, cognitive and psychological. These limitations are the reason that there should be more restrictions for …show more content…
One of the major limitations for older drivers is the decline in eyesight. This is a large influencing factor as an individual’s over 40 years are three times as likely to develop severe eye conditions for every decade after this age. Limited vision impacts drivers’ safety as they aren’t able to see road signs, changing traffic lights, and potential hazards. Here are some images I found to help give you an idea of how some of these conditions can impact on an individual’s capability to drive safely. So as you can see from this picture someone with cataracts has cloudy and blurry vision. Those with glaucoma they have limited vision of the sides of their visual field. Macular degeneration is the opposite, so the central vision is lost. These conditions would clearly affect an older person’s ability to drive safely, increasing the likelihood of a crash. A study conducted in 2012 in Queensland looked at the differences in road crashes between older and younger drivers. One of their findings was that older drivers, aged between 70 and 79 were most likely to have an accident at give way signs and stop signs. Another study found that that the visual sensory function, chronological age, and health status of the individual’s brain and eyes were related to car
Australia is an ageing population and as you can see from this graph people are living longer, this means that there are lots of older drivers on our roads. A study in Queensland found that the accidents caused by older drivers could be due to a range of age-related declines like deterioration in sensory, cognitive and motor abilities, medical and neurological conditions. As you can see on this graph, due to this decline, older drivers are at a much higher risk of crashing, particularly those aged over 75 years. I divided this wide range of factors into physical, cognitive and psychological. These limitations are the reason that there should be more restrictions for …show more content…
One of the major limitations for older drivers is the decline in eyesight. This is a large influencing factor as an individual’s over 40 years are three times as likely to develop severe eye conditions for every decade after this age. Limited vision impacts drivers’ safety as they aren’t able to see road signs, changing traffic lights, and potential hazards. Here are some images I found to help give you an idea of how some of these conditions can impact on an individual’s capability to drive safely. So as you can see from this picture someone with cataracts has cloudy and blurry vision. Those with glaucoma they have limited vision of the sides of their visual field. Macular degeneration is the opposite, so the central vision is lost. These conditions would clearly affect an older person’s ability to drive safely, increasing the likelihood of a crash. A study conducted in 2012 in Queensland looked at the differences in road crashes between older and younger drivers. One of their findings was that older drivers, aged between 70 and 79 were most likely to have an accident at give way signs and stop signs. Another study found that that the visual sensory function, chronological age, and health status of the individual’s brain and eyes were related to car