When The Elderly Refuse to Stop Driving: How One Family Took Action.
What do you do when the time comes for an elderly parent to stop driving, but they won’t?
When Stephen Petrow came face to face with dilemma, he and his siblings did something drastic – they anonymously reported their mother’s dangerously poor driving to the State of New York DMV. Although she passed the written exam, her license was revoked after she failed a mandatory driving test. The examiner’s comments on her road test included: “Extremely dangerous!! Turns wide into wrong side of road! Poor late braking. . . Completely unaware of surroundings.”
While Stephen Petrow knew this was the right thing to do, he wonders if he will have the courage to willingly give up his car keys (and autonomy) voluntarily if he becomes a danger to others.
This is a good article relating one family’s struggle with what is, unfortunately, a growing problem.
Read Stephen Petrow, When our elderly mother refused to stop driving, we took drastic action.