Introduction Think about what tasks you do every time you get behind the wheel of a car. You must coordinate the actions of your hands, feet, eyes, ears, and body movements. At the same time, you must decide how to react to what you see, hear, and feel in relation to other cars and drivers, traffic signs and signals, conditions of the highway, and the performance of your car. And these decisions must be made frequently. The record of older drivers is good, when you consider the number of collisions per driver, but when you consider the number of collisions per miles driven, this record is surprisingly bad.
Older drivers have fewer collisions, because they drive less and at less dangerous times.
But when they are in a crash, it can be very serious. In a two-car fatal collision, where one driver is 65 or older, the older driver is 3.5 times more likely to be killed. Injuries that are seen as moderate to severe for most people are fatal to people aged 55 and older. An activated driver is someone who assumes responsibility for his or her own driving skills and who self-examines and compares his or her ability with the requirements for safe driving. The premise of this booklet is that through knowledge and self-awareness, you will understand what a safe driver is and will assume the responsibility to be a safe driver or to decide to give up the driver's license and seek other forms of transportation.