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Elderly Drivers

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Submitted By kavehtoosi
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Pages 5
The experience and the emotions I felt made me do a research about the issue. Looking at the problem globally, it should be mentioned that in recent decades numerous authors focused on the problem, therefore, it is a concern.
For instance, scientists in Connecticut show that though the absolute number of crashed, where drivers aged over 72 are involved, is not high, this category of drivers has a high rate of incidents per mile. Moreover, the threat of fatal outcome in this category is very high. This group of researchers emphasized the medical aspect of aging. Their investigation showed that adverse events for drivers of the age group are related to cognitive impairment, low physical activity (particularly, the amount of walking per day has been examined) and foot abnormalities (like left-knee flexion). Those results are particularly interesting, as they show how risk factors can hide not only in obvious age changes, but also in those less predictable. This study also shows that there is much to discover about the issue. Among other reasons, which are associated with increased risk of crashes among senior drivers are visual field loss, visual attention, dementia, stroke, Parkinson disease, cardiac disease and other age-related disorders (Marottoli et. all).
Another research, conducted in Canada showed that drivers aged over 65 have a high risk of fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. Among risk factors the following have been indicated: medical and physical conditions, inattention and little experience, wrong actions (such as wrong turning). Authors of the research argue that preventive age-specific strategies could improve the current situation and make driving safer for senior drivers, as well as for other participants of the traffic (Zhang et. all).
An additional factor to consider is high usage of psychoactive drugs among elderly drivers. Of course, any drugs

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