Glance at the next driver you see weaving through expressway traffic at an obscenely — and dangerous — high speed. Chances are, the driver is not an older adult. Nor, in all likelihood, is the person you see driving along while texting on a phone.
In fact, as Mitchell Armentrout reported in the Sun-Times last week, the 2024 crash rate for Illinois drivers 75 or older was about 25 per 1,000 drivers, lower than every other age range, according to a state Department of Transportation analysis.
Yet, under current law, older adults have to jump through more hoops than people in other age groups to get their drivers licenses renewed. Drivers 79 or 80 have to take a driving test if their license has expired. From age 81 to 86, they have to take a road test every two years. After age 87, it’s every year.
That’s the strictest set of requirements of any state in the union. Instead, the system should recognize that health and overall ability are what show whether someone is a safe driver, not how many birthdays someone has had.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced legislation with a new set of requirements that deserves support from lawmakers. A press conference to discuss the bill is scheduled for Tuesday in Chicago.
Under the provisions in the bill, motorists would no longer have to take driving tests every two years from age 81 to 86, but would still have to take mandatory road testing at 87 and up. The legislation also would set up a system for close relatives allowing them to ask the state to step in if they think older driving relatives are no longer fit to get behind the wheel.
Last year, state Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, introduced a bill that essentially removed all restrictions that applied only to older adults, but even with 48 co-sponsors, it couldn’t get a majority in the House. The new bill has a better chance of passing, he said.
“Absolutely, this is the No. 1 issue that people reach out on to my office about,” Keicher told us. “I think we are moving in the right direction.”
Older drivers as a group have showed they are safe drivers. The state should treat them that way.
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The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.