Anne Dickerson is a professor and director of research for the Older Adult Driver Initiative at East Carolina University and spoke about the safety and planning necessary for older and aging drivers at Eastern Michigan University.
She talked with 89.1 WEMU'S Lisa Barry about how we can keep older adults on the road as long as possible and how to keep them safe.
Dickerson talked about strategies to keep older drivers on the road and how to help them plan when to retire from driving. Men will outlive their driving years by seven years. For women, it's typically 11 years, and she says older drivers need to plan for that. She says it's their goal to help keep older adults on the road for as long as they can.
Dickerson says 65 to 75 years old is considered an "older driver," but she says often they are still safe drivers. But after the age of 75 and for 80 plus drivers, they can have more serious injuries from a car crash because of the medical conditions they may be dealing with.
She says older adult conditions can benefit from occupational therapy and mentioned EMU is hosting a community event Saturday, October 14th from 9 a.m. until noon for current older drivers to check the fit of their car to make sure drivers are safely operating their vehicles.
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— Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter @LisaWEMU, or email her at lbarryma@emich.edu
