People over 68 years of age should have their driver's licenses cancelled - Essay Example

With an increase in life expectancy and reduction in population growth, the number of old people in the U.S is expected to triple. In recent years there has been controversy concerning the maximum age beyond which a person should not drive. Ageing is a continuous and complex process and hence there is no any absolute definition of an old person. Lack of a precise definition for an old person must be the cause of controversy surrounding maximum driving age. The rising number of accidents caused by seniors indicates that old people are more likely to cause accidents.

Driving is a process that requires speedy reactions and decision-making. This is because drivers are expected to drive their vehicles at a relatively high speed especially the highway drivers. Driving at a high speed requires a person to have quick response as well as fast and rational decision-making. Response and decision-making depends on a person’s rate of reaction. Hope (web) stated that old people have slow response. Slow reaction makes old people to have slow response in relation to the speed of the vehicle.

Accident takes a fraction of a second to happen but have fatal consequences. This implies that a driver should have quick response to events and occurrences on the roads. This makes the old people to be more likely to cause accident than young people. Old age is a losing process as described by theories of aging. This implies at old age people lose most of their capabilities. Aging is also described as an accumulation process, at old age a person accumulates problems acquired during his lifetime.

The sense of sight plays an important role in driving since through the eyesight drivers are able to determine their direction. Eyesight also enables drivers to determine and avoid obstacles that might be present on the way. Most importantly, drivers use their eyesight to determine distance and speed (Lindenburg 78). It is not clearly known how this