Dear Editor:
It is the mantra of the day to take unsubstantiated potshots at older drivers (60 years of age and older) regarding their driving records. By its very nature, making decisions based upon age-related data is PROFILING no less illegal than racial profiling.
In New Mexico, Gordon Eden, director of the state Motor Vehicle Division stated: The aging driver is becoming a greater risk than male teens. He offers no statistics to back up this spurious claim.
It is one thing for the average person to make offhand and unsubstantiated claims about automobile accident records, but another when an official of state government makes such claims. Most citizens trust the words of officialdom. One wonders why, without critical analysis, one should trust a person just because s(h)e is an official.
Trusting has become a religious dogma today, and we look to role models (Sean “Daddy” Combs, for example) for guidance.
Last year, USA Today published reliable statistics gathered from insurance company data across the nation. On an accident-per-year basis, those 65-74 were the safest; teenagers were the worst. The published item profiles the 65-74 year group as safer by concluding the following about senior citizens: 1) they drive less than 10,000 miles per year; 2) they avoid driving in treacherous conditions (snow, high winds, etc); 3) they keep within the speed limits (or exceed the limits only marginally); 4) they avoid angry confrontations; 5) they tend to drive in off rush-hour times of day; 6) they tend to avoid drinking and drugging while driving.
Of course, the reply from those with heavy insurance bills is that the slow driving (that is, at the speed limit) CAUSES accidents. However true this may be in selected anecdotes, insurance companies arrive at a more balanced conclusion: they assess LOWER premiums based upon the only true criteria, how much money they must lay out for any customer. Trucking outfits, of course, based upon their accident rates, pay the highest premiums.
If we want to effectively reduce the prevalence of accidents we must: 1) increase the minimum driving age to 25 (this would allow young people 4-7 years to test how they handle alcohol; 2) make ALL drivers take anger-management courses; 3) enforce the speed laws; 4) limit annual driving mileage to 25,000 per driver.
Frank X. Landrigan