7 page paper due tommorow HELP

[Bongsmith]

Joseph S. Bee

Professor Burkart

ENG 112

21 Sept 2005

Elderly Drivers
â??Elderly drivers are becoming the fastest growing population in the country. According to census estimates, by 2020, one in five Americans will be 65 and olderâ?� (Belcamino). â??In 2003 approximately 19 million drivers in the USA are 70 and older, representing 10 percent of all motorists. Those numbers increased 32 percent from 1991 to 2001 and will continue to surge as millions of baby boomers reach retirement age in the next decadeâ?� (McMahon). Progressively elderly people are becoming more independent and self-reliant. They are picking up drug prescriptions, going to work, going to the doctor, visiting family and friends, going grocery shopping and many other errands (Belcamino). How are they getting to all of these places? They are driving. Because of many health issues that become prevalent in older ages they are unfit to drive. They are, when they drive, putting themselves and everyone around them in danger.
As people gain in age their senses begin to diminish, four of the five senses; sight, hearing, smell, touch, are vital in the operating of a car. You need to be able to see clearly your surroundings when you drive a car. You need to be able to smell if your car is giving off strange odors, such as oil or gas if it is leaking. You need to be able to hear, while driving, if a train is coming, or if someone honks at you if you are about to hit them. You need to be able to touch in order to steer and control the car.
The majority of elderly people are unfit to drive because of serious health issues. They suffer form diminishing eyesight, peripheral vision, slowed reaction time, memory loss, arthritis, and dementia (Uhlenhuth). These health issues all play a major role in driving ability. â??John Nelson, the president elect of the American Medical Association says that the incidence of chronic health problems that impair driving increases as people ageâ?� (McMahon). Many states require vision tests for elderly people over eighty years of age when renewing their licenses, but these health issues begin to set in as early a fifty years of age (McMahon). Also when the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) gives vision tests they are checking for sharpness and the ability to see what is directly in front of them, it does not test for peripheral vision which is necessary for safe driving. You need to be able to see if a bus is stopped and kids are getting off or if you are driving off the road. The test also doesnâ??t check for their â??...ability to distinguish tones such as a gray car from the gray pavementâ?� (Uhlenhuth). When their vision is tested at the DMV they are permitted to wear their glasses to take the test making it mandatory for them to wear their glasses while driving and many of elderly drivers do not follow this law. This makes giving a vision test pointless and does not help to make our roads any safer. Many elderly people have diseases such as Parkinsonâ??s disease or diseases or symptoms like Parkinsonâ??s. A symptom of Parkinsonâ??s is slowed reaction time which plays a major role in why elderly people should not be allowed to drive. At certain times when driving you must be able to react quickly and precisely to avoid a collision or other kind of car accident. Memory loss and dementia are also serious side effects that come with age and are prevalent in elderly people (Therien). You need to be acute and aware when driving. You need to be able to hear the dangers around you that are involved with operating a car. You need to be able to concentrate and you need to be able to express good judgment. Elderly people suffering from arthritis have a hard time keeping hold of and maneuvering all of the controls, such as the steering wheel, of a car. People in walkers and wheel chairs are allowed and do drive. How is an elderly person with bad knees or legs supposed to operate the pedals of a car safely? They canâ??t. All of these health issues, which are unfortunately dominant in elderly people, make them unable to safely drive a car.
Russ Radar, of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said, â??Elderly drivers have elevated crash rates and are most likely to be found at fault in accidentsâ?� (Price). â??According to crash data in 2002, elderly drivers over eighty five were the third most likely group to be involved in a fatal car crashâ?� (Price). An eighty six-year old man, in Santa Monica, California, killed ten people and injured forty when he drove into a farmerâ??s market (Uhlenhuth). This is unacceptable. Not only are they hurting themselves when they drive and cause car accidents, but they kill and injure pedestrians in the process. An elderly driver recently drove into Broughton High Schoolâ??s recently renovated gymnasium full of students. Do you want your kids to get plowed over by someone who is unfit to drive, yet is carelessly allowed to by the government? â??According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the only people to have higher rates fatal crashes, especially per mile driven, than the youngest drivers are the elderlyâ?� (Price). â??David F. Snyder, senior counsel for the American Insurance Association, noted that over the years, accident rate data have sketched a â??U-shaped loss curve by age â?? highest among the youngest and oldest drivers, with a trough in the 30s, 40s, and 50s age groupsâ??â?� (Levinas). Elderly people cause the majority of car accidents and, therefore, should not be allowed to drive. â??Elderly drivers posted the highest age-linked traffic fatality rate. â??When compared to the fatality rate for drivers thirty to fifty nine years old,â?? the traffic safety agency reported, â??teenage drivers display a rate about 4 times as great, while drivers in the oldest group display a rate 10 times as high.â?? And because of their physical fragility, older drivers are at greater risk of dying or sustaining serious injury in a crash than younger driversâ?� (Worsnop).
One of the main causes of traffic and road congestion is elderly people. They cause car accidents which slow down traffic. And they drive too slowly. The majority of old people, for reasons unknown, drive at least ten to fifteen miles per hour below the speed limit, and at many times slower than that. When they drive slowly, the cars behind them have to drive slowly causing a gradual build up of traffic. Not only is this an inconvenience to other drivers, but it also produces a greater risk for car accidents, since the majority of car accidents happen in heavy traffic.
I understand that elderly people need transportation. They, however, should not provide it for themselves. The government needs to get involved and provide escort services for them, such as taxis or free bus passes for people over sixty five. It is also the duty of the family members of the elderly people to make sure that they are taken care of and taken to where they need to be. It is also the duty of the family members to realize when an elderly family member is unfit and in danger to drive.
â??The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety projects there will be forty million elderly drivers by 2030 and about nine million of those licensed drivers will be over eighty fiveâ?� (Price). Letting elderly people drive causes dangers to themselves and everyone around them. They cause problems ranging from small, such as road congestion, to large, such as deaths. They cause car accidents, and traffic and congestion on the roads. It is the governmentâ??s duty to stop elderly people from driving, and provide them with transportation, but they do not. A large majority of the voting population is made up of elderly people and for a government official to stand up and do the right thing would be career suicide, given the fact that elderly people would not be satisfied with that decision and therefore would not reelect that official. They must be removed form our streets immediately and provided with adequate transportation. It is up to the rest of the population to stand up and implore, to your local government officials, the importance of the revocation of elderly peopleâ??s licenses and make our roads safer. Elderly people should not be allowed to drive.

[beachguy in thongs]

You know what I'd do? Insert in the first paragraph, one of those rediculous crash statistics. Whatever.

[ermitonto]

Remember that South Park about the old people driving? You should use that as a source.

http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/southp...thpark-710.htm
Father Maxi: Friends, we gather in this place to mourn the victims of yesterday's tragedy: nine good people who were run over in the street by an elderly woman driver. [the four boys are shown in their funeral best]
Cartman: [yawns] Oh God, memorial services are sooo boring.
Kyle: [jabs Cartman and says in hushed tones] You insensitive asshole, Cartman! Nine people died!
Cartman: Yeah, but like, eight of them were hippies. Mostly hippies go to farmer's markets. Mostly
Father Maxi: It is sometimes hard, in times like these, to understand God's way. Why would he allow nine innocent people to be run down in the prime of their lives by a senior citizen who, perhaps, shouldn't be driving? It is then that we must understand, God's sense of humor is very different from our own. He does not laugh at the simple "man walks into a bar" joke. No, God needs complex irony and subtle farcical twists that seem macabre to you and me. All that we can hope for is that God got his good laugh and a tragedy such as this will never happen again. [screeching tires are heard]
Mr. Garrison: [rushing into the crowd] Look out!! [everyone turns to see. An elderly driver approaches them]
Elderly Driver: [somewhat short, nearsighted] Huh? Was that a stop sign back there? [the banner recedes behind him. Everyone screams and the driver begins mowing people down. He crashes into a light standard at the other end of the market] Ooooh, I think I hit a pot hole.

[Storm Crow]

Sorry, kid, but this one is all your fault. Instructors do not give you one day to do a 7 page paper. You must have blown it, big time. Next paper, start it the day that it is assigned. Stop getting stoned and procrastinating! I used to drive my fellow students crazy by starting my term papers about 2 weeks into the course. ( I needed that much time to learn what the teacher liked) However, I must say that I wrote most of my best papers stoned and "cleaned them up" while straight. I got my degree with honors.

[GHoSToKeR]

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F

[ermitonto]

By the way, how did you make that essay span seven pages? You must have used a pretty big font.

[Fengzi]

Basically any and all of the degenerative diseases that afflict the elderly can impart their driving. Arthritis, failing eyesight, etc. Not to mention alzheimer's. My grandfather would repeat himself because he couldn't remember what he had just said, kept telling me to study hard so I could get into college(I was 28 and had already graduated) but still had a license to drive. My Father and Uncle finally had to sit him down and demand that he give up his license. He fought like hell too.

[tokosan]

yea, you would probably be alot better off turning in a stale dog turd.

Or the paper I wrote for ya.

[beachguy in thongs]

A+ guys, I kind of skimmed it over and saw that he had a lot of works' cited, so how can he go wrong with experts' words?

Well, besides that first crazy lady I gave him.

[beachguy in thongs]

[QUOTE=beachguy in thongs]"It's very hard to give up your--your wheels. We all say--I've talked to many people, many of my friends about it--and they all say the same thing. They don't know what they would do without their wheels," says Manville.[End of the freaking quote that made me edit]

You know, I bet this ^ lady had 4 friends, they all say they all talk to each other, many of them, and all of them say the same thing.

"Grape" "Grape" "Grape" "Grape"