Center Offers Tips for Elderly Drivers

By Erica Williams
Staff Writer

August 15 -- It took one elderly driver running into the center divider three times to turn over the keys. Another driver only admitted all the accidents he’d had after the doctor ordered him to stop driving. Still another had a service station rekey the car locks after the family took her keys away.

Those were some of the stories exchanged at a workshop Wednesday that offered tools to wean elderly driver from the wheel nearly one month after an 86-year-old driver’s fatal spree through the Downtown Farmer’s Market catapulted the issue into the national spotlight.

The driver, George Russell Weller, reportedly confused the gas pedal with the brakes as he entered the popular regional market at 4th Street and Arizona Avenue. Unable to stop, he sped for two-and-a-half blocks down Arizona, claiming 11 lives and leaving dozens injured in his wake.

The Center for Healthy Aging, located a few short blocks from where the tragedy occurred, began discussing putting on the class the day after that horrific event, said Vice President Julie Connella. About 50 people, many elderly, attended.

“We wanted to do our little part” to help, Connella said of the center, which has been operating in the community since 1976.

For Mayor Richard Bloom, the issue hits close to home -- both his parents, who are in their mid-80s, still drive. His father-in-law recently stopped driving “because the doctor said he was in no condition to drive.”

“All the accidents he had that he never told us about,” Bloom said, shaking his head as he recalled his father-in-law’s recounting of the incidents once he stopped driving. “He wouldn’t be around today (if he hadn’t stopped driving).”

One hurdle to intervening in a parent’s driving, Bloom noted, is that as parents age, their children, who are often parents themselves, don’t have the same tools to deal with their parents’ driving as they do with their own children’s.

In Bloom’s case, the doctor’s intervention helped make for “an easy transition because he respected the doctor,” Bloom said. “He was an authority figure.”

Marshalling the assistance of allies outside the family -- such as doctors, ministers and other caregivers -- is a key strategy relatives can use in trying to get aging parents and family members off the road, said Sheila Segal, who coordinates the clinical program at the center and helped facilitate the workshop.

The police department and DMV can also help, said Det. Chris Dawson, a traffic investigator with the Santa Monica Police Department.

The 21-year veteran said he confiscated two drivers licenses from elderly drivers in the last six months.

“The single biggest problem,” he said, “is the perception/reaction time for the eyes to see a problem and the brain to react.” Normally it takes an average of 1.5 seconds to stop. But an elderly driver or someone on a cell phone takes as much as 4 seconds to stop, more than doubling the stopping distance required.

If you suspect a loved one is no longer able to drive safely, Dawson told participants, you can make a request to the DMV to re-evaluate that person’s driving -- including taking a driving test. The process is completely confidential, Dawson said, since the DMV is not required to identify to the driver who made the request.

“It’s much easier to use a stranger… than to disrupt (that relationship),” agreed Barbara Diehl, an administrative assistant at the center. Diehl recalled her yearlong battle to get her mother in New Jersey to stop driving, enlisting the help of a social worker and her doctor.

Though the process was difficult (her mother once had a local service station re-key the locks to her car when the family had taken her keys away), she is no longer driving.

“I’m here to testify,” Diehl proclaimed, her arm upraised, that “there are ways to deal with it successfully.”

What makes the process so difficult, the center’s President and CEO Monika White noted, is the loss of mobility and a fear of isolation for the elderly driver confronted with not being able to sit behind the wheel.

“Mobility is so important to people,” White said. “It shouldn’t be that (either) you drive or you stay home. There needs to be a way to get to the places you want to go or have to go.”

Alternative forms of transportation such as cabs, Dial-a-Ride and Access Services can help the elderly get around without driving, White said.

But, Segal said, “You have to be willing to be part of the solution. Initially you do have to commit” to personally helping elders get around when they first give up their cars. “It shows you care.”

Communication and planning early on is essential in making the transition easier on everyone, Segal told attendees.

“No matter where you are in your life, this issue of a huge loss is something you’ll have to deal with at some point,” Segal said. “The more we look at it and talk about it,” the more control you can have over the situation.

Some basic tools for effective communication include having collaborative discussions where everyone is an equal partner and being specific about your experience and observations, Segal said.

Using judgmental language or generalizations such as “you always forget” or “you’re a loose canon,” as one participant said she told her stubborn parent, are not helpful, Segal said. “It puts cotton in our ears.”

Geri Kipnis, 74, said she stopped driving on her own three years ago after she had run into the center divider three times. “I could see the kids didn’t want to drive with me,” Kipnis added.

This is one key sign that you need to have that conversation with your parent about driving, White said. There are “obvious signs” you can look for as a passenger with an elderly driver. They include near misses, driving at inappropriate speeds, failing to notice traffic signs, confusion and slow reaction time.

Other signs include visible scrapes and dents on the car or in the garage, stories of “close calls,” vision and hearing problems, and the fact that you are hesitant to let your kids or yourself ride with them.

For more information, please contact the Center for Healthy Aging at 1-877-CHA-6111 or visit their website at www.centerforhealthyaging.org.