Tampabay: Computers may predict driving risk

The number of drivers over 70 will nearly double in the next two decades. Experts are now saying that a deceptively simple computer touch screen test is the best way to predict which older drivers are a crash risk.

The test measures how well the eye and brain work together to process information. It has been in existence for about a decade, but its use is still rare. Only four places in Florida offer it.

In two weeks, driver's license officials will begin experimenting with the test in the Tampa Bay area. The test already has been in use at one bay area non-profit agency for six years. It will become one of the tests that the state uses to decide whether to take someone's license away for medical reasons.

"Sometimes we have to play the bad guy," said Selma Sauls, an administrator with the state Division of Driver Licenses. This past week, the American Psychological Association said the most effective way to determine which elderly drivers are more likely to crash is with a computer touch screen exam called the Useful Field of View test.

The 10-minute, three-part test requires people to keep track of small cartoon icons of cars and trucks on a screen even as the test distracts them with visual clutter.

It seems simple, but the test gets faster and faster, measuring how quickly the brain handles visual information. One study found that drivers who score poorly on the test are more than twice as likely to crash in the next three years.

"It's a wonderful tool. It's like a driving physical," said Jack Withrow, a counselor for the Area Agency on Aging "Getting in Gear" program. "Some people get tunnel vision. They process the area that's right in front of their car. They might miss the traffic light or the girl on the bicycle. They say, "She came out of nowhere."'

The agency, a St. Petersburg-based non-profit group, has been using the computer test for six years as part of its free, voluntary, confidential assessments of seniors' driving skills.

The Getting in Gear program is fighting a perception among seniors that driving is a black-and-white, either-or issue: either they can or they can't.

In fact, said program director Susan Samson, a surprising number of driving problems can be fixed with medical care, corrective devices or training.

"We find that most people don't know all this stuff," Samson said. "It's never simple, never cut and dried. There's a lot of gray in this subject."

Getting in Gear tries to promote its free driving tests to a wary audience by presenting this as a public health issue: Check your blood pressure. Buckle up. Oh, and check your driving ability.

But the program's future is in doubt. It will lose its state funding next year.

Withrow was administering the test to curious seniors last week at a health fair at Suncoast Manor Retirement Community in St. Petersburg. If they didn't do well, Withrow recommended more confidential testing at an Area Agency on Aging office.

"Some people say, "Well, I don't want to do that. What if they take my license away?"' Withrow said. "Some of them, I think they kind of know, but they don't really want to know."

The non-profit group can't take away someone's license. Samson, the program's director, stresses that the goal is to identify drivers' problems and come up with strategies to keep them on the road safely.

Older drivers are a touchy subject in Florida, which leads the nation in traffic deaths of people over 70. Florida has one of the most lenient license renewal laws in the country. Drivers can renew twice by mail, going 18 years without setting foot in a licensing office. Seniors have repeatedly beaten back lawmakers' attempts to impose regular vision or driving tests on them. A dozen states already have those tests. Almost two out of three Floridians older than 85 have driver's licenses. Many seniors limit their own driving, and many drive quite well. Still, statistics show that teenagers and drivers over 65 have the most accidents per miles driven. Nationwide, as baby boomers age, the number of drivers over 70 is expected to grow from about 16.5-million now to about 31-million by 2020.

A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that at the current rate, one-quarter of all fatal traffic crashes by 2030 will involve drivers 65 and older.

The institute, a non-profit research organization funded by auto insurers, found that drivers age 70 to 74 who have accidents are twice as likely to die as drivers age 30 to 59. When a crash involves a driver 80 or older, the risk of death is about five times as high.

The increase in the number of elderly drivers could make it less feasible for states to require regular road tests for seniors, so experts are seeking faster, cheaper ways to identify high-risk drivers.

When high-risk drivers are found, solutions might include a new eyesight prescription, physical therapy, a memory clinic, a change in medication, a left-foot accelerator, a wide-angle rear-view mirror or a refresher course to stop bad habits.

The Insurance Institute suggests that designing vehicles to take into account the limitations of age, and making road signs easier to read, can slow the rate of fatal accidents. The report also urges automakers to improve ergonomics for older motorists, install less rigid seat belt systems that will not cause shoulders and ribs to break and use air bags that inflate with less force.

Sometimes, there is no solution.

Last year, Florida revoked the licenses of 1,076 drivers for medical reasons. It did so after reviewing the cases of 5,762 drivers who were the subject of complaints from doctors, police, driver's license offices, neighbors or relatives who thought the drivers were medically incapable of driving safely.

"We track far more cases than we revoke," said Sauls, the driver's license official. In another 3,524 cases from last year, the state is tracking a driver's progress after recommending a solution.

When licensing officials get a complaint about a driver's medical condition, they begin a process that might include an interview, eye test, road test and medical diagnosis. Now the state will add the Useful Field of View test when Tampa Bay area cases are evaluated at a regional office in Tampa.

"We hope to streamline our process in the future," Sauls said, but it remains to be seen whether a computer test will be a part of that. "It depends on the cost. Florida is an extremely large state, and we have to see how cost-effective it is."

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For more information

The Area Agency on Aging's "Getting in Gear" program serves the entire Tampa Bay area and can be reached at (727) 570-9696, ext. 234 or ext. 263.

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