1. 5 Safety Tips for Elderly Drivers

2. The natural process of aging can affect your vision, hearing,reaction time and mental fitness. As a senior driver, that means italso can affect your driving abilities and even increase risk of atraffic crash. Since these changes can occur very slowly, youll wantto evaluate then early and often before putting yourself andothers at risk. 3. You can still be active, however. Dealing with these mind and bodychanges and adhering to a few simple guidelines can make you awiser senior driver.Here are some key safety tips, according to AAA:1. Vision. A drivers eyesight is critical in preventing car crashes,because nearly all the sensory input you need to drive a carcomes from visual cues. If your eyesight is diminished, so isyour ability to drive safely. This is especially important tosenior drivers. 4. 2. Hearing. According to the National Institutes of Health, hearingloss is one of the most common conditions affecting olderadults. Hearing loss can be dangerous, especially when in ornear traffic. For example, the inability to hear high-pitchedtones, such as sirens from emergency response vehicles,especially among background noise like horns or railroadwarnings, can put you and other drivers at risk.3. Reaction time. Even if you have excellent judgment whiledriving, it may be challenging at times to integrate informationfrom several sources at once. This can slow driver reactiontime and inhibit safe driving in dangerous situations. Its alsopossible that pain or stiffness in muscles or joints could make itdifficult to react quickly during emergencies. 5. 4. Medical conditions and medications. If not managed properly,medical conditions can increase your crash risk. Some of themost common conditions known to affect safe driving areimpaired vision, physical limitations, dementia, diabetes,seizures and sleep disorders. Even if you have one or more ofthese medical conditions, if you work closely with your doctor,you often can continue safe driving. 6. 5. Mind and cognition. As you get older, your brain needs moretime to process information, making it more difficult to ignoredistractions. The good news is that mature judgment, years ofdriving experience and good driving habits often can helpsenior drivers compensate for some diminished cognitiveabilities. Cognition is the ability to remember information likelocations or destinations and recognize and respond to thingssuch as traffic signs and pavement markings. When driving, itinvolves being able to focus and make sound decisions in ahurry to avoid a crash.For more great information and resources,visit seniordriving.aaa.com. 7. Find Quality Care NowLocate a BrightStar Near You!Find a location in the USFind a location in Canada