A lot has changed since Phyllis Kelsay got her license in the early 1960s. Cars drive faster, she said, and there are highways everywhere, giving drivers several options to get to the same place.
“Before, there was just one road,” she said.
Kelsay, a 68-year-old Salmon Creek resident, says driving is her quiet time. She doesn’t play music as she buzzes around town for errands, which she does every other day to get out of the house.
“I’m kind of a road warrior type person; I like to drive, and I’ll drive most anywhere,” Kelsay said.
“I love to drive so much. I just go,” she said as she gazed intently out the windshield at the road, occasionally glancing to the side at other lanes to keep an eye on the traffic to her left and right.
The thought of one day giving that up, she said, is scary.
“That’s my independence — just getting in the car and going, and I like that,” she said.
But as we age, things start to deteriorate — our eyesight, our bodies and our ability to react quickly.
Kelsay said she hasn’t yet noticed any major issues with her driving, but she doesn’t like driving on rural, unlit roads or for long distances at night.
“I’m starting to have cataracts, so my night driving isn’t as good,” she said.
Kelsay recently took a senior driving class offered through PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. She said she gets a discount on her insurance for attending the class, but she added that it’s nice to learn about new laws, get refreshed on existing laws, and pick up some driving tips.
The class includes input from an occupational therapist and a Washington State Patrol trooper, who can give the audience some insight into their expertise.
Bill Tucker, the driving instructor who leads the class, said the class fills an important niche.
“An important aspect of the class is becoming aware of what our capabilities are — that we don’t see as well, hear as well, react as quickly,” Tucker, 79, said. “There’s all those physical things we need to be aware of and compensate for.”
While drivers older than 65 accounted for 13.3 percent of the driving population in 2012, that group of drivers made up 17 percent of all traffic fatalities, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
While some states require retesting after drivers reach a certain age, Washington isn’t one of them.
Oregon, for example, requires a driving test for license holders older than 50, and doctors are required to report medical conditions — something Washington doctors aren’t required to do, either.
License renewals in Washington include a vision test and questions about whether the applicant has a mental or physical condition or takes medicine that could impair driving.
The Washington State Department of Licensing does have an avenue to have someone retested — regardless of their age.
Anyone can fill out a driver re-examination form with the Department of Licensing, making a case to have a driver undergo a driving test. The form is not anonymous.
Drivers between the ages of 81 and 90 experienced the highest numbers of drivers re-examined in 2014, representing 25.7 percent of the total group of people who underwent re-examination, according to information provided by the Washington State Department of Licensing.
Some drivers keep a keen eye on their own actions, keeping in check whether they’re fit to be on the road.
Joyce Wentzell, 63, said she’s noticed her skills declining in recent years and so has self-implemented a “three-strike” rule. She says she’ll give up driving after making three big mistakes.
She already has one strike, she said; she went the wrong way down a one-way street in downtown Vancouver two years ago.
“I only went two car lengths when I realized,” she said. “I hadn’t been paying attention to the signs.”
Other drivers aren’t as self-aware or don’t readily admit their inabilities. In some cases, they’re holding tightly to their independence.
Dian Lane of La Center said she had difficulty when it came time to address her father’s declining driving abilities.
“My dad had some sort of a seizure, and the doctor said, ‘Medically, you can’t drive,’ ” she said.
He was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Lane said. He surrendered his license but had friends drive him to the Department of Licensing every two weeks so that he could try to have his license reinstated, she said.
“My heart went out to him; his whole life he loved to go for rides,” she said. “When I’m 85 — I’ll probably fight it, too.”
Both of Lane’s parents live in Seattle and have caregivers. She has set up to have a driver take her father out for two-hour drives twice a day.
“It has reduced his frustration a lot,” she said. “It’s something for him to look forward to. He can’t drive, so it’s an outlet for him.”
Dr. H. Alexander Krob, a neurologist at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, said he is often asked by family members to address concerns regarding a patient’s driving skills.
“The question of when people need to stop driving is an important one,” he said. But, he added, “taking away keys is not really in the scope of what a neurologist can do. … It’s a very sensitive issue.”
Driving is technical, Krob said. “We can all remember how hard it was to learn to drive, and that gives us an idea of how hard it can be when the mind and the body may be less sharp,” he said.
Judging whether someone is still up to driving, however, is hard to do in a doctor’s office — so he will try to send people to get voluntarily tested at places such as 911 Driving School in Salmon Creek.
“If they’re being asked to give up something that’s truly valuable to them, which driving is, we owe it to them to make it very clear on why they have to make that sacrifice,” Krob said. “We have to put ourselves in their shoes. This is something that will come to each of us.”
