Older Drivers: Risks, Signs, and Safety
- Selina Paul
- Apr 30
- 4 min read
Driving represents independence, routine, and freedom for many older adults, making the idea of stepping away from the wheel deeply personal and often difficult. Yet aging brings gradual changes that can affect how safely someone drives, and those changes are not always easy for drivers or their families to recognize in real time. Knowing when driving may no longer be the safest option is less about one moment or mistake, and more about understanding patterns, abilities, and risks as they evolve over time.
Last year General Motors filed a patent for a system that could determine “a driver’s retirement score” and make a judgment on whether it’s time for certain long-time drivers to give up their keys. The proposed technology would build on existing telematics tools to monitor behaviors like reaction time, turn signal use, fatigue, being honked at, and difficulty reading road signs. It would then generate a fitness‑to‑drive score, and if it fell below an ‘acceptable’ level, an alert would be sent to the driver or a designated contact, such as a family member.
While filing this patent doesn’t suggest the technology will be added to vehicles now - or ever - it does raise an important conversation for older adults and their family members about knowing when it may be time to stop driving and understanding the ways that age can affect driving ability.
Growing Older on the Road
The AAA reports that by 2030, “there will be more than 70 million people age 65 and older, and approximately 85-90 percent of them will be licensed to drive.” According to AAA:
For the first time in history, people are outliving their ability to drive safely.
Natural age-related changes can bring functional impairments that create heightened risk in navigating both every day and complex driving situations.
“Compared with younger drivers, senior drivers are more likely to be involved in certain types of collisions — angle crashes, overtaking or merging crashes, and especially intersection crashes.”
Additionally, increased fragility due to advancing age means the risk of being injured or killed in any type of crash is especially high for older adults. Aside from teenagers, seniors have the highest crash death rate per mile driven.
Physical and Cognitive Challenges
Safe driving requires drivers to be alert and aware of their surroundings, so anything that disrupts the ability to scan for hazards is a serious threat to road safety. For instance, common conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, or macular degeneration, and vision problems like light/glare sensitivity, reduced peripheral sight, or difficulty seeing at night, increase the likelihood that a person will missimportant information while driving. Visuospatial skills can also decline with age, making it harder to judge distances, navigate tight spaces, or process visual cues.
A recent study of serious U.S crashes found “the most frequent error made by crash-involved drivers ages 70 and older was inadequate surveillance, which included looking but not seeing and failing to look.”
Chronic pain, a restricted range of motion, or a reduction in strength can severely impact a person’s ability to operate a vehicle and respond quickly to changing road conditions. These limitations can make essential actions, like quick braking, evasive steering, or rotating to perform blind spot checks, harder to accomplish.
Many older drivers also take multiple medications, which alone or in combination can potentially cause impairments to alertness, reflexes, or judgment, making driving extra dangerous.
Warning Signs
Age alone doesn’t determine physical or cognitive decline, nor does it automatically mean someone is unfit to drive. Still, getting older can be a good reminder to check in on your driving experience. Some signs that it might be time for you, or a driver you know, to consider hanging up the keys are if:
New in‑car technology feels confusing or distracting
You feel less confident driving, especially at higher speeds
You have trouble reading road signs, seeing lane markings, or driving at night
Other drivers honk at you frequently
You’ve had recent accidents, close calls, or unexplained dents or scratches
You get lost or disoriented, even on familiar routes
For caregivers and family members of older drivers, watching for signs of decline and having conversations about whether it is time to stop driving can be difficult, but they’re important for the safety of everyone on the road. At the same time, all drivers should exercise extra caution and patience when driving near older adults, as they may need extra time to react or space to maneuver.
Stay on Top of Safety
For drivers new and old, investing in ongoing driver training, monitoring, regular evaluations, and refresher courses can help keep skills sharp and reinforce essential safety habits over time. These tools are especially valuable as driving needs and abilities change with age. alertdriving's safety programs and solutions can help quickly identify risky driving patterns and deliver timely, targeted coaching that addresses common problem areas. Designed to support lifelong learning behind the wheel, alertdriving training helps every driver build the awareness, confidence, and skills they need to stay safe on the road.
Contact us at sales@alertdriving.com to learn more about program options.
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