Yeah, that title argues multiple issues, ‘cos this is one bad intersection where they meet, every pun intended, putting everyone at risk, with California DMV Potentially Unsafe Driver (FFDL 10) shifting blame from the statistically dangerous groups onto seniors, as if that’ll make the roadways safer. Ageism — the prejudice Americans approve most.
Update of interest for verification, autumn 2020, from a professional medical journal: Ageism and COVID-19: What Does Our Society's Response Say About Us?
Part I. Ageism is a reality in western societies[2,3] and current views [are] tinged with false beliefs and prejudices.[2,3] Public authorities often consider older adults to be a burden rather than an integral segment of the population ... Older adults are rarely given a voice and are seldom considered [in decision-making that impacts them]. The media has a considerable role in the propagation of ageist stereotypes and negative attitudes towards older adults, particularly in times of crisis when age is not a relevant factor.[3,4] The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the exclusion of and prejudice against older adults. The current crisis highlights a disturbing public discourse about ageing that questions the value of older adults' lives and disregards their valuable contributions to society...[5]
...Part IV. older adults are invaluable members of society. They are a source of generational knowledge and wisdom, they contribute to the workforce in increasing numbers, they volunteer and they are key to the strength of our economies and our families. We cannot afford to be careless about these lost lives because of ageist attitudes. We need to consider what we stand to lose if we let ageism influence how we discuss and treat older adults during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Click HERE and scroll down to reach the footnotes/references link.
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The <big><big>California Potentially Unsafe Driver provision</big></big> —reported in local news as being stepped up as of the date of original diary publication— authorizes pretty much anyone to lodge accusations against pretty much any senior, without evidence, and out of whatever motivations, that s/he
“may no longer drive safely,”
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That wording is from the state webpage at the top link. No mention of “doesn’t yet drive safely”, which would include consideration of youngsters and anyone else with a new-ish license.
And nothing about “isn’t driving safely”, to cover folks who drink alcohol before or while driving, or comb their hair or ogle other drivers or drive one-handed in order to eat or drink with the other, or any other dangerous action-in-motion imaginable.
Instead, it’s solely “No longer”, and and forget about the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution — the American right to confront witnesses/accusers. A cop at least has to do that, and presumably is trained to know impaired driving when s/he sees it. But hello, untrained public — now you too can secretly Be a Stool Pigeon and feel righteous about it.
More from that webpage (emphasis added):
Each request must be signed for authentication purposes. However, you may request that your name not be revealed to the individual being reported. Confidentiality will be honored to the fullest extent possible. We understand that reporting someone, especially a patient, relative, or close friend, is a sensitive issue and DMV does not want to harm your relationship with that person. ...
...DMV's Mission
One of DMV’s major responsibilities is to promote traffic safety and protect the motoring public by minimizing the number of unsafe drivers. DMV also understands the importance of a driver license and a person’s independence. DMV keeps this in mind when evaluating a driver.
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All this is very kind and gentle to the sensibilities of informants, who are portrayed in effect as needing much more protection from the trashed senior driver than that driver needs from the informant who trashed him/her. It’s rather less considerate about how crucial is reliable freedom of motion to ANYONE who needs to be able to obtain healthful food and other necessities, participate in economy, and exercise citizenship such as by attending local governmental hearings to give testimony, or such as voting, and other independences in a nation low on public transportation services.
More importantly, this DMV position is also factually destitute. Agencies like the DMV should be in the best position to know statistics showing which age-groups encompass the genuinely hazardous drivers whom it would actually protect the public to remove from the road, rather than scapegoating seniors. For example, data analyzed for <big>2020</big> from autoinsurance.org.
2nd most dangerous – Drivers Aged 25 to 29
Number of U.S. Drivers this Age: 19,722,565
Percent of All U.S. Drivers: 8.9 percent
Fatal Crash Rate (per 100,000 drivers): 30.1
Worst State for this Age Group: Rhode Island (1st)
The following five states are where 25 to 29-year-old drivers were involved in the most deadly wrecks:
- California – 655
- Florida – 551
- Georgia – 229
- North Carolina – 211
- Texas – 639
#1 most dangerous – Drivers Aged 20 to 24
Number of U.S. Drivers this Age: 17,710,048
Percent of All U.S. Drivers: 7.9 percent
Fatal Crash Rate (per 100,000 drivers): 36.3
Worst State for this Age Group: Vermont (1st)
The five states where the most 20 to 24-year-olds were involved in fatal crashes:
- California – 760
- Florida – 608
- Georgia – 257
- North Carolina – 238
- Texas – 696
Deadliest Drivers by Age — US Fatal Crash Total
Drivers Aged 20-24 |
6,424 |
Drivers Aged 25-29 |
5,911 |
Drivers Aged 30-34 |
4,904 |
Drivers Aged 35-39 |
4,160 |
Drivers Aged 50-54 |
4,105 |
As drivers increase by age, the total fatal crashes they are involved in decreases.
...the top five deadliest age groups all include drivers in their 20s and 30s..
<big>These are the age groups that never showed up as the most deadly in D.C. or any of the 50 states:</big>
- 35-39
- 40-44
- 50-54
- 60-64
- 65-69
- 70-74
- 75-79
- 80-84
- 85+
<big>Things to remember...</big>
- The deadliest drivers are not teens or the elderly
- Drivers in their early 20s get in the most fatal crashes
- Drivers aged 20 to 24 are the deadliest in 36 states
- Teens were involved in the most crashes in just one state
- Drivers aged 60 plus are the deadliest in ZERO states
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For more detail on older drivers compared to the rest, see iihs.org … older-drivers#by-the-numbers and for more data and comparisons, iihs.org … fatality-statistics/detail/gender#Age-differences
Why scapegoat senior drivers?
The crash detective‘s 2008 review of the facts that year, in finding that the most dangerous drivers were young men between the ages of 16 and 29 (who are now roughly age 28 to 41), led him to note that:
This is a large and influential demographic in our country,
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Large and influential not least in avoiding being targetted by the DMV despite fully deserving it. #metoo might have more to suggest about their excess power & abusive use of it (but that’s another story if consistent with the pattern). CrashDetective analysis of the data was compelling:
...the average male driver is a greater risk on the road, per mile driven, than any other driver, from the moment he gets his license until the day he turns 30. That’s 14 years of being more dangerous than a senior driver of either gender, and that’s 14 years of being more dangerous than a teenage female driver.
...Every day, it’s common to hear talk among people and throughout the news about how dangerous “seniors” are behind the wheel, or how bad “teenagers” are when it comes to taking driving seriously. This paints an incomplete picture of the facts.
While it’s true that there are certainly some poor elderly drivers and that teenage males and females are the demographics most likely to be involved in fatal collisions within their genders, a look at the numbers reveals a more accurate picture. And that picture indicates that male teens and [male] young adults are far more likely to be reckless drivers than drivers of any other gender or age group. I’ve written about this before….
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At the date of original publication of this diary, this DMV webpage headed SENIOR DRIVERS summarized everyone encouraged to complain about them, and what the DMV could put the accused through, “potentially” upon no evidence at all, and “potentially” by members of the genuinely dangerous demographic.
Further context: seniors are increasingly in the downwardly-mobile[sorry, necessary pun] demographic, so their finances make them less likely than other drivers —especially young men— to have the kinds of cars most profitable to the auto industry, and they’re more likely to drive cars less profitable to the insurance industry to issue policies on.
They also have fewer resources materially, in morale, and in allies, to draw upon for fighting discrimination, harassment, scapegoating, and deprivation. <big>Minority seniors the more so.
And minority women seniors most of all</big> — the Bay area’s Instit on Aging reported for 2010 demographics that
- Older women outnumber older men, and the proportion of older adults who are female increases with age.
- In 2010, 57 percent of all adults age 65+ were women.
The US Dept of HHS’d Admin’n for Community Living-dAdministration on Aging reported in 2018 that:
- more than one in every seven Americans was age 65 or older.
- older women outnumbered older men at 29.1 million older women to 23.3 million older men — That's 125 women for every 100 men.
<big><big>This means that what singling out “Senior Drivers” for special scrutiny without justification boils down to is that once again women are especially being singled out for harassment and discrimination, and young men, the genuinely dangerous-driver demographic, are being especially given a pass to wreak havoc on roadways</big></big> as pretty much everywhere else.
Side-note on “relationship” hazards, where protecting accusers is concerned, and where exposing elders to increased dangers is concerned: feel free to skip down past it:
For 13 years I battled the elder abuse my brother kept trying to exploit our widowed mother with, to get control of her finances, possessions, home and literal person. Sometimes, when my disabilities prevened me from stopping him, he would move in, and by monopolizing her car and telephone he would isolate her from her friends, her doctor, even relatives.... He might have succeeded, if not for decades of embarrassed semi-awareness most of our parents’ siblings, colleagues, friends etc had that he pilfered from his parents’ home, emotionally extorted money and other support from them and other relatives, had battered me from early childhood (until I learned self-defense late in hi-schl and stopped him cold), and lied any time lying advantaged him, rather than ever earn his own living thru’ age 60 and beyond.
To anyone whom he could make listen, his arguments included that she — who had retired from teaching only in her mid-70s— was too old and foolish to make her own decisions, and would get herself into trouble, and cause others trouble, that he was only trying to protect everyone from...
We think of elder abuse most in connection with adult children of aging parents and grandparents. Just as with child abuse and abuse of dependent adults, it includes negligence and violation in
any relationship where there is an <big>expectation of trust…</big>
It includes harms by people the older person knows, or has a relationship with, such as a spouse, partner, or family member; a friend or neighbor; or <big>people that the older person relies on for services...</big>
...services <big>including as nondiscriminatory laws and regulations for the public good, from personnel and agencies of government.</big>
Reread this diary replacing “seniors” with “older women” and see how even more prejudicially that pans out, and how little if at all this DMV strategy will improve public safety.
READERS, IF YOU’RE 70 OR OVER IN PARTICULAR, GET PREPARED — even if no one with a prejudice, grudge, or paternalistic viewpoint decides to use civic force on you, the DMV can put you through the ringer just because.
To be fair, here's the California page of the Family Caregiver Alliance/National Ctr on Caregiving about some of the considerations.