POLICY ISSUES - LICENSE RENEWAL FOR OLDER DRIVERS - ANALYSIS OF THE IOWA EXPERIENCE IN REEXAMINATION OF HIGH-RISK DRIVERS

Loss of a driver license places an older person in the unhappy role of a transportation dependent. This dependence weighs heavily on that pe rson's family; if family members are nearby, they become either the so le or primary source of transportation for their transportation-depend ent parent(s). If there are no family members nearby, as occurs often in today's highly mobile society, then a major concern of that family may be their parent(s)' lack of mobility, with the parent becoming eff ectively restricted to home due to lack of access to adequate transpor tation facilities. Most of those who are involved in the issue of driv er license renewal favor keeping older drivers on the road as long as possible, rather than arbitrarily denying them the privilege to drive. Out there is legitimate concern about the presence of impaired driver s on the road and accompanying safety risks. Many states address this concern by devising license renewal procedures that will cause at [eas t some potentially unsafe drivers to be flagged and referred for reexa mination. This study evaluates the bases for referral and reexaminatio n currently used in the state of Iowa and assesses the validity of ref errals. The results of our analysis indicate that the current referral process works quite well in identifying at-risk drivers, resulting in a high percentage of suspensions or imposing additional restrictions on an existing license. Results also support policies instituted by so me states using age as a criterion for more frequent license renewal-w hich would allow examiners to test and observe driver behavior more fr equently. The choice of age 75 as a threshold is supported by these re sults.