It is time for staying safe from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
We're here to keep you safe on the roads.
And Tom Nitter is here from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
How you old timer?
Good morning,
John.
One old timer to another.
Yeah, thanks.
Yeah, we actually sent an older driver.
I'm a bona fide older driver to talk about driving older years.
Yeah, so
people say, oh, you don't know what you're talking about.
Yeah, we don't know what we're talking about.
We're older drivers.
That's our topic today.
Growing older, driving older.
And either you are your parents or grandparents.
And that's what we're here to talk about today, because it's tough when you're getting old, your eyes are going down, your reflexes aren't like what they used to be.
And we're going to talk about that growing old.
So let's talk about that growing old.
Is it a reason to stop driving?
No, not at all.
And how this came about was this was always kind of like the third rail of discussions with things when you talked about traffic safety.
Um, it's, it's really, uh, we started out wanting people to be aware of some of the things that as you age, there may be things that are occurring to you that you may not even realize that perhaps other people start seeing.
But yeah, age alone is, is really not a reason to stop driving.
You always hear about these people, I'm 102 and I'm still driving.
Some people can do it.
They certainly can.
Other people
cannot do it.
There's
some people that at 35, they should probably give up their keys.
People
at 18 should give up their keys.
So the latest thing is all these drivers, these, I don't know, the young people in out with the mufflers, the backfiring mufflers on Main Street.
Holy mackerel.
It is annoying.
It's a middle of the night.
You're bang, bang, bang out.
Sounds like a gunfight and some guy's muffler.
All right.
So growing old, what are some signs that it's time to stop driving?
Let me just preface this by saying, well, my
My mother and father, my father gave up driving because he was getting dementia and Alzheimer's and my mother was driving everywhere.
My father would touch the gear shift and pull on it and my mother would get distracted by saying, you know, could you hand off there?
He tried to open the door sometimes, you know, and I said, mom, you can't drive like that arguing with dad at the same time.
She was a good driver, but you can't do that.
If you do that, some poor schnook crossing the street is going to pay you the price and we don't want that happening.
So
She willingly handed me the keys, but I told her, anywhere you want to go, I'll drive you.
And I kept that word.
But it's tough.
Some people don't want to give up the keys.
Well, we're talking about independence.
And, you know, it's a difficult thing.
And again, there's sort of workarounds with some of that.
I think the thing to keep in mind is that really nobody wants to
caused a crash where somebody is injured or killed because of their own actions, but yet they have to find a way to keep on living and so forth to go about their daily needs and so forth.
It's always been that probably friends and family have started to help out in terms of driving and people start doing adjustments to their own driving.
They may limit their driving to daytime hours, for example.
take a familiar route in terms of going to things.
And they'll limit their driving.
The days of long road trips are probably over, but if they need to go to the grocery store, to the pharmacy or something like that, they're still able to do that.
They're familiar with things.
And the good news is that over the years, there's been more and more options for people.
If you don't have a family member or a friend that can drive you,
There's medical transport companies over there's over now Lift you know things like that that are reasonably affordable and of course you get the you know the Transit system, you know and so forth.
So yeah, there's there's workarounds with with that
and also the older you are the more pills you're taking medications I know and It can impair your you know ability to react quickly And so you got to be careful of that now anybody can take medication it could be you know
20 years old and take medication, but older people tend to take more than most people.
Well, that's true.
And again, everybody has their own physiology, as it were, where medication can affect some people more than others and so forth.
But one thing I want to point out, maybe people, your listeners, may want to follow along with us a little bit because we brought up our poster.
We put a lot of time and effort into creating the
the poster on a monthly basis.
So it's staying safe at Racine County.
Yeah, what I do is
I Google Racine County staying safe and it pops right up and all the posters we've talked about are there.
Click on it.
Like the bottom one is older drivers.
That's what we're doing today so you can kind of follow along with us.
And getting lost too.
Now anybody can get lost.
But I'm going to talk about older drivers.
I'm talking about like 70s, 80s, stuff like that.
Let's talk about the DMV and older drivers.
No special testing requirements for older people.
You get the same test, right?
Well, and again, we're talking about the state of Wisconsin.
Different states have different rules and so forth.
Yeah, they do.
In fact, Illinois had it years ago.
My father lived in Illinois and we went for his license renewal and he had to take a road test.
That's something that doesn't exist currently in Wisconsin.
And I think actually in Illinois, they rolled back the law a little bit.
I think it had been like age 75 when a road test was required.
And I think because of public pressure, they kind of raised it up to like maybe 78 or something like that now.
So you have to retake them,
huh?
Yeah, I had to retake them.
I
wonder how many people of any age.
can pass a road test, or even the written test,
if they had to
take it today.
That's true, but we all have a responsibility to drive safe or drive as safely as we can realizing that you gotta interact with other motorists and you always gotta drive defensively.
No question about that.
And overall, the older driver, and I'm gonna say probably people
55 and up, we'll call the older driver.
As a group, we're pretty good.
We're experienced and we don't take a lot of risks.
But again, because of the effects of aging, certain things do come up.
Hearing loss, vision loss, reaction times, things like that.
And like you said, with medications and so forth, it can have
can affect your ability to drive safely.
Here's something I didn't know.
A physician can actually have your license canceled.
Yes.
How do they do that?
What do they call the DMV and say, listen, Don is driving like a nut.
He's taking too many medications.
I want his license canceled.
Well, it has to do, I think, but there is a formal procedure.
And one of the things that we did on the poster this month, and we're going to probably be doing it going forward, is
Wisconsin DOT has an excellent website that really provides a lot of good safety information, even beyond what we can put on the poster or Facebook postings or what have you.
But anyway, yeah, there's a procedure in place.
You know, I'm a retired police officer, so there were a couple occasions in my career where I had to do referrals to DMV.
Physicians can do it.
And also, family members can do that.
Really?
Yeah, but the one thing to stress with that is you can't do an anonymous because it's public.
So mom's gonna find out.
Mom's gonna find out, yeah.
What we'd rather stress is that you have the talk, if you will, with mom or dad or grandparents or whatever, you know, just trying to point out and trying to work with them in a proactive way too.
been a problem from occurring.
We're talking to Tom Ditter.
He is from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
We're talking about older drivers today, which could be you.
What do you consider older, 55 and up?
I'm going to say 55 and up.
Yeah.
I mean, there's different definitions, obviously, you know, social security age and, you know, 62 and whatever.
But 55 and up is, is what we consider.
I was used to be with a program called Racine County Triad.
It was a crime prevention and safety program geared for older adults.
And we try to focus on people that were 55 and up.
But again, when we're talking older driver, people that are now the kids or even grandchildren should be aware of some of these things because they may end up helping a mom or dad or grandparents or what have you.
So what are the signs that we're in this time to stop driving?
Because most people don't really say, I'm fine, because people don't think of themselves as being old.
They just don't.
Well, they
think himself being young.
So when what are the signs?
Right, right.
Well, again, you know, if you have significant changes in health or medication, you know, some of these things you may not be aware of, you know, somebody else, a third party may have to look at you and say, well, I'm her dad just isn't right.
You know, since they went on this medication or whatever.
being surprised by other drivers or pedestrians.
I mean, some of these things can happen to anybody, so no question about it.
I think you're looking at a pattern of things that seem to develop, experiencing new misses or minor accidents.
A lot of times what brings some of these signs to...
to, you know, visible would be, you know, the daughter shows up and says, geez, you know, dad, look at the right side of the car, you know.
I mean, there's, you know, dance and so forth, and they may not even be aware of it, but, you know, sometimes that happens.
Other expressing concern about your driving, I mean, that could happen at a younger age, no question, but if you have people that are
you know, starting to blow the horn and, you know, passing you abruptly and so forth.
So difficulty reading road signs.
Again, our vision, you know, has a tendency to decrease as we get older.
So, you know, nothing wrong with that, but those things can be adjusted, you know, with glasses or corrective lenses, what have you.
And one of the big ones, and this is something that I experienced with my father,
getting lost in familiar areas.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How about navigating those barrels on Spring Street and so forth?
I get older, I mean, I'm experiencing, it's like a slalom out there
trying to get rid of those barrels.
It can be a challenge, no question about it.
So again, you know, these are things just to be aware of.
And again, we would like people to do sort of a self-assessment.
And, you know, just like now in today's world, people are starting to look into long-term care policies and other things as they age and starting to, you know, if they want to stay in their home, starting to make some adjustments, putting in grab bars and whatever else.
Same thing, you know, plan for the day where, yeah, you might be, you know, you might be a hazard to.
not just yourself, but other drivers and pedestrians that you may have to make some adjustments.
Talk about having a safer trip.
I know we have a big storm day today to possible storms.
When you get that rain, you can't see the road.
It's terrifying.
I'm terrified because you can't see the road.
When it's foggy outside, you can't see the road.
In a snowstorm, you can't see the road.
And it's terrifying for everybody, but if you're older and you don't have the reflex that you used to have.
I'm gonna stop sure.
Yeah, sure.
It's it's a challenge and and you know we as You know traffic safety and public safety professionals You'll hear more and more announcements saying hey if you don't have to drive if you don't have to go somewhere Stay home.
You can always reschedule an appointment.
You know your safety and the safety of others is Perhaps not worth it.
So just just be aware of that So
so many things here have a safer trip.
I'm reading through some of them now, you know
Make sure your seatbelt's on.
We were talking during the break.
It's just, it's second nature to me.
I don't think about putting the seatbelt on.
It's just, I get in it, it happens.
All of a sudden it's on.
I don't know how it got there, but it got there.
Right, right.
That's sort of a mindless habit, but it's a good habit to have.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In fact, the older driver, if you look statistically, I think they have the highest use of seatbelt usage.
Yeah.
Of all the driving groups.
I remember before seatbelts, you know,
nobody even thought about it, but then seatbelts came around.
What are the biggest risk areas we have for older people?
Is it backing up and parking, parallel parking, getting in a spot that's tough to get into?
Yeah, that certainly is one of them.
You know, following too closely in traffic with the older drivers tailgating, you know, someone, or conversely, where they're driving down the road and they're going maybe 10 miles under the speed limit or something.
and you have somebody else tailgating you.
Now, you know, the person following has a responsibility to, you know, keep enough distance there, but he just don't know.
Certainly he leaned right away, merging.
They were on my
tail every morning coming down 16th Street because they're late for work and I'm not.
And that's true.
So at least people need to, you know, keep up with the speed limit or close to it.
Let's talk about tuning up your car because you got to...
You got to keep that car in good shape.
If it's not, you don't want to break down on you on the road, getting a flat tire in the middle of driving.
You don't want that kind of stuff.
Well, that's true for all of us.
Nobody wants that.
And as an older driver, though, getting a stall there or stuck on the side of the road is even more challenging and perhaps dangerous for you.
Let's talk about tuning yourself up.
Because, yeah, your car, you get a mechanic, they take care of it, and you pay them and your car is in good shape.
But you, you got to take care of yourself.
I just had an eye exam the other day.
You got to check your eyes regularly, because, you know, maybe the world's not supposed to be blurry.
Correct.
I told you
when
I was 12 years old and first got my first pair of glasses, I thought the world was normally blurry.
I didn't know.
Yeah, and part of the, part of the issue is, you know, for in Wisconsin anyway, I think it's a eight year period between
when you renew your driver's license and when you have to go again.
Now they do require for, I think it's 65 and up, you have to look at the website for DMV, but I believe that they require a vision test.
You just can't renew it online.
That's something that's come about in the last couple years where people can renew their driver's license.
They don't necessarily need to go to the DMV office to do so.
They can do things online.
I didn't know that.
Okay, and also AARP and AAA also have refresher courses.
Yes, you want to take them?
I mean, you know turn off the television go down there and take a refresher course Yeah,
and you know check check with your insurance company just to see is there anything I can do to you know freshen up my skills Maybe that would they'd give you a break in terms of your insurance some states actually mandate that through law I don't think Wisconsin has that yet where if you take a course you'll get a
automatic 10% reduction in your rates or something.
That's something to check into with the insurance company.
If they, it's not mandated, but perhaps it's in their best interest to prevent you from getting involved in a crash.
Most important one, shut your cell phone off.
Don't answer while you're driving for anybody, teenagers, whatever.
It's the biggest distraction in your car.
the cell phone.
It really is.
Even if you have
hands free, it's a distraction because you're talking to somebody and you're not paying attention to what you should be paying attention to.
Cell phones, turn them off and there's nothing that you're going to miss in the few minutes you're driving.
Because when I was a kid that before cell phones, you left the house, you never got a call till you got home.
And that was it.
I mean, you were just out.
There was no answering
machine.
Don, we're dating ourselves here.
Well, because we're talking about older drivers, yeah.
You know what some people do, which isn't a bad idea, is they will do two things.
One is they'll set their cell phone up at a minimum where they can perhaps answer it, or at least listen to identify who's coming in, but they won't pick it up.
and physically hold a thing.
We'll be able to talk through the, you know.
Yeah, but still it's distracting.
That is a distraction.
The other thing that people do is they'll sometimes put it in the glove box or in the compartment where I'll let it ring and it'll go to voicemail or whatever and then they'll check it later.
Yeah, put it on silence, yeah.
And you'll get it.
There's nothing that you can't wait to hear in 10 minutes or 15 minutes.
Correct, correct.
There's nothing.
You got, again, error on the site of safety and what I
remind people is that, yeah, most of us, we have the moral responsibility that if something did happen where we caused a crash and somebody got hurt or killed, yeah, we'd feel terrible
about that.
Okay, now this poster is that if you just Google Racine County staying safe, just Google that, it'll pop right up.
You'll see the list of all the posters we've done.
Click on the one older drivers and you'll see all this information.
It's got some great websites to contact.
And if you're not the older driver, maybe your parents are the older drivers.
It's good information for you to know too.
Thanks for coming in guy old man.
Hey coming old man.
Hey Don.
Thank you.
Thank you
Probably just as old as you are
We're close.
Yeah, we're close.
We won't disclose that but yeah, I don't look that we have young voices I hope and I still have black hair.
Yeah, right You you have very little gray hair.
Yeah, very little bit.
Yeah, good for you Charmed life or something.
I don't know.
Tom Nitter
from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
Thanks for doing this.
There's a lot of work and
You don't get paid to do it, so I do appreciate this.
And whoever, who puts the poster together?
We've got a couple of people at the county.
One, her name is Vel.
I want to say it's Delano Vich.
So something like that.
She's the one that actually puts the posters together.
And then we got the communications manager, Casey Morgensen, that sends it out on Facebook.
And so we're on social media as well.
Good for you.
Thanks for coming.
I'll see you next month.
You're welcome.
Every month.
Thank you, Tom.
Tom Ditter from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
