Joseph Coughlin, an MIT leader in transportation, logistics and aging, has an op-ed in today's Boston Globe that should be read, especially by our leaders. The article was triggered by the current noise surrounding driving by elders.
Coughlin starts out by reminding us that many accidents are caused by people's health conditions, not their birthdays. He claims that 110,000,000 of us (more than one-third of the population) suffers from a chronic disease; 60,000,000 suffer from two or more chronic diseases. Therefore, the issue is health, not age when it comes to safe driving.
Coughlin has a number of prescriptions, the first of which is to test annual samples of all drivers to determine their fitness for driving. He recognizes that most of us - whether age 80 or 40 - do not want to be tested. He urges families to be more proactive in monitoring the driving of their members who are at risk.
He is a proponent of government action to make this a safer nation. The government should encourage industry to do a better job in developing technologies that improve safety on the road. Public transportation needs to be redesigned to meet today's needs, which have moved beyond the need to get people to work; we need to design public transportation systems that serve us throughout our lifetime.
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