Beware of age bias.Byline: The Register-Guard Car accidents don't get much worse, or raise more questions, than last week's tragedy in Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. , Calif. An 86-year-old man lost control of his car and careened into a crowded farmers market, killing 10 people, including a 7-month-old boy, and injuring dozens more. The driver, George Russell Weller George Russell Weller (born December 7, 1916) is a retired salesman from Santa Monica, California, who gained notoriety as the motorist in a fatal car accident, fueling a national debate on safety risks posed by elderly drivers. , told police that he may have stepped on the gas instead of the brake. This horrifying accident already is raising questions in Oregon Oregon, city, United States Oregon, city (1990 pop. 18,334), Lucas co., NW Ohio, a suburb adjacent to Toledo, on Lake Erie; inc. 1958. It is a port with railroad-owned and -operated docks. The city has industries producing oil, chemicals, and metal products. and elsewhere about whether states are tough enough on elderly drivers. Such questions are legitimate. It's reasonable to wonder if Weller Wel·ler , Thomas Huckle Born 1915. American microbiologist. He shared a 1954 Nobel Prize for work on the cultivation of the polio virus. should have been behind the wheel at the age of 86 - or if a younger person might have corrected a gas-pedal error more quickly. But Oregon and other states should resist calls for sweeping new restrictions based on age. Such rules are unfair in light of statistical evidence that most elderly people drive with great care and do so through all or most of their senior years. Oregon is among 21 states that already have requirements for older drivers - vision tests are required for those 50 and up each time they renew their licenses. Family, doctors or law enforcement officials can request that any motorist be given a new road test. Other states have taken more drastic steps that raise questions of bias. New Hampshire New Hampshire, one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). and Illinois Illinois, river, United States Illinois, river, 273 mi (439 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, NE Ill., and flowing SW to the Mississippi at Grafton, Ill. It is an important commercial and recreational waterway. require drivers older than 75 to pass a road test for license renewal. (California lawmakers rejected a similar proposal four years ago, but it's not clear if Weller would have been subject to testing.) Oregon's law provides a reasonable balance - testing drivers for the essential aspect of vision while opening the door for people to refer elderly drivers for license review. Ideally, last week's tragedy will also prompt some long-overdue conversations between families and elderly drivers about the need to recognize diminishing di·min·ish v. di·min·ished, di·min·ish·ing, di·min·ish·es v.tr. 1. a. To make smaller or less or to cause to appear so. b. capacities and to give up driving. |
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