Many medications have side effects that make driving more dangerous.  Of equal or greater importance is the number of medications and the combined side effects based on ability to metabolize these chemicals.

Don’t drink and drive.  If you have been drinking, call a cab.  Have a designed driver.  As we age, our ability to metabolize alcohol changes.  It is not only the young who can get stopped for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Stay off the cell phone and hands free phone while driving.  The reaction time is already depressed and multi tasking is more difficult for the aging brain.

Be honest with your body changes.  The problem is that you may not just hurt yourself, you may hurt or kill someone else and have to live with the consequences of that for the rest of your life.

Just because you continue to pass the State administered driver test does not mean you are safe to drive.  It simply means that you know the rules of the road.  Do not be lulled into a sense of security. 

Highway on and off ramps can be safety sources for the senior driver.  Not only is it necessary to manage your own vehicle, but you must monitor the traffic merging on or off the main roadway.  Arthritis in the shoulders and neck may make visual monitoring painful or unlikely.  Eye disease can distort distances and make you think that merging traffic is further away than it really is.   The on ramps are for acceleration so driving at slow pace enhances accident risk for the merging ramp traffic as well as the traffic that the car is merging with.

When your family refuses to ride in the car with you.  When you son does not allow your grandchildren to ride with you.  When you find dents, dings and scratches on the body of the car and do not know how they got there.  When your friends no longer want to ride with you.  When the police come to your house to talk to you about an accident that you caused and you were not aware of.  When you are driving and cannot find your way home from a well known place unless you call someone to direct you.  When you children have had a conversation with you about your unsafe driving.  If any of these situations have happened to you, it  is time to do the right and safe thing.  You need to give up your driver’s license for  your safety and the safety of those around you.  There is a time when no matter what the modifications and training, the senior driver should no longer be behind the wheel.