Missouri Law Ensures Safe Driving in Elderly

A Missouri state law designed to help families, doctors and law enforcement officials prevent unsafe motorists from continuing to drive is working effectively and should serve as a model for the nation, according to a comprehensive study released today by both AAA Missouri and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The law ensures licensing decisions are based on a person’s functional performance and medical fitness to drive safely – not their chronological age; although the study found that the average age of reported drivers was 80 years old.

“This law should be adopted nationwide because it serves as a critical safety net to identify and remove medically unfit drivers from the roads. Most seniors drive responsibly and do an excellent job of self-regulating - limiting their exposure to high-risk situations, ultimately choosing to retire from driving. Some, however, continue to drive even though they have become functionally unfit to drive, and for these individuals reporting may be necessary,” said Peter Kissinger, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety President and CEO.

Missouri’s voluntary reporting law allows concerned family members, police officers, physicians, license office staff and others to report potentially at-risk drivers for re-evaluation and possible license revocation if they are found to be medically unfit to drive. In part, the law is in response to the efforts of the Suroff family of St. Louis, who lost their 21-year-old son, Jason, to a 92 year-old wrong-way driver with dementia. Missouri is one of 44 states to allow voluntary reporting (six states have mandatory laws).