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Countermeasures That Work Older Drivers Countermeasures 1.2 General Communications and Education

1.2 General Communications and Education


Effectiveness: 1 Star Cost: $
Use: Unknown
Time: Short

This countermeasure involves educational material for older drivers to inform them of driving risks, help them assess their driving knowledge and capabilities, suggest methods to adapt to and compensate for changing capabilities, and guide them in restricting their driving in more risky situations. These include a variety of self-assessment tools, programs, and other information developed by organizations such as AAA, AARP, American Geriatrics Society (AGS), American Medical Association (AMA), American Society on Aging (ASA), American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), CDC, NHTSA, and WebMD.

Other material is available to assist drivers and family members in understanding how aging affects driving, the effects of medications and health conditions on driving ability, how to assess an older driver’s skills, how to use specialized vehicle equipment to adapt to certain physical limitations, how to guide older drivers into voluntarily restricting their driving, and how to report older drivers to the department of motor vehicles if necessary (Stutts, 2005). Additional information can be found on the NHTSA website (www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety/older-drivers) and the ChORUS website (www.roadsafeseniors.org). In February 2017 AGS, under a cooperative agreement with NHTSA, released a “Driving Safety” toolkit with resources for older drivers and caregivers, on their public education website (HealthinAging.org), see www.healthinaging.org/aging-and-health-a-to-z/topic:driving-safety/. See www.programsforelderly.com/index-senior-safety.php#drivingandsafety for information on programs that promote safe driving for older drivers. WebMD also presents resources to guide caregiver discussions on driving safety.

Effectiveness Concerns: There are no known evaluations of the effects of this material on driving or on crashes (Potts et al., 2004, Strategy D2).

Further information about the known research, potential effectiveness, costs, use, and time to implement is available in Appendix Section 7, 1.2.