Putting the brakes on senior auto accidents

By KATIE FOUTZ kfoutz@scn1.com

For three years, Cheryl Shook has been trying to persuade her elderly father-in-law to hang up his keys.

Lines on the road were harder to see at night. Getting in and out of the car was more difficult.

Finally, as her father-in-law neared his 97th birthday, he agreed to stop driving.

"He was very defensive at first," said Shook, 65, an administrative assistant for Visiting Angels, a home care service in Glen Ellyn. "If their faculties -- their mind -- is working so well, and his are, they don't want to give up that independence. That's what it really boils down to. 'I want to be able to take care of myself and go get my groceries and my prescriptions.'"

Visiting Angels created a brochure for older individuals or their caregivers about the warning signs for when they should consider giving up driving -- for their own safety and others'. The signs include diminished hearing, vision and reaction time. The brochure also suggests ways to address the driving issue with a loved one.

Shook faced a few challenges while getting her father-in-law off the road. First, he lives in Florida, so she and her husband can't drive him themselves. Also, he has outlived many of his friends, so there are few people in his social life who can pitch in behind the wheel. He does have a younger girlfriend: a 92-year-old woman who lives across the street and does the driving for both of them.

Shook said her father-in-law's eye doctor was helpful in getting through to him.

"His eye doctor told him, 'I'd prefer you don't drive any longer,'" she said. "The doctor would say, 'How did you get here?' 'Oh, I drove. I took the back roads.'"

Her father-in-law took a long road to giving up his keys. He first agreed to give up driving at night. He also started to shorten his trips. After a while, he stopped driving anywhere more than a half-mile from his house. At the end of December, he finally said he would not drive at all anymore.

One Naperville couple in their 80s also has limited their driving -- they drive themselves to visit family in Wisconsin and Ohio, but they now fly to vacation in Florida. They declined to be identified because they didn't want authorities to think they are dangerous drivers.

"There is a fear your ability to drive is slipping a little bit," he said. "When cars are going around you 20 mph faster, you begin to wonder, do I really belong here? You question your own reaction time. If I had to stop in a hurry, would I be able to?"

His wife's two-year driver's license is up for renewal this year. In Illinois, between ages 21 and 80, driver's licenses are issued every four years. If you're a good driver with a clean record, you can renew your license without a retest. Beginning at age 75, you must take a test when you renew consisting of a vision screening, written exam and driving test. Between ages 81 and 86, licenses are good for two years. After that, licenses must be renewed every year.

Driving isn't as fun as it used to be, she said. For one thing, distracted drivers make her nervous. The new I-Pass lanes on the tollways also are confusing -- she once missed three tolls on I-355 before realizing what she had done.

Those concerns are familiar to ophthalmologist Byron Tabbut, president of Wheaton Eye Clinic of Naperville, Wheaton, Plainfield and Hinsdale. He said patients and children of patients have come in with driving on their minds. However, it often takes a failed vision test to signal a problem.

"We see it most commonly in patients who have macular degeneration, glaucoma or cataracts," Tabbut said. "With macular degeneration, you lose the center of vision, like a bull's eye in the target. That obviously affects their driving ability."

He checks three things before recommending a patient stops driving: visual acuity, peripheral field of vision and their ability to respond to traffic conditions. He first points out what can be changed and fixed, such as surgery for cataracts, treatment for macular degeneration or telescopic lenses for low vision.

His offices deal with diminished driving capacity a lot, but that experience doesn't make the discussion easy.

"The ability to drive or losing the ability to drive is a major milestone in any person's life," Tabbut said. "You want to be straightforward but gentle. It's best to bring a family member into the conversation if they'll allow that. Often a family member or loved one who knows that person well can communicate in a truthful yet sensitive way what might be best next step."