The aging of the population in Spain is an issue that worries sociologists in our country. To the well-known economic and social concerns of the experts, another one that affects road safety is also added. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in 30 years, 36% of the Spanish population will be over 64, while currently the figure is 17%. Which means that, during this period of time, the number of seniors will have doubled and that, statistically speaking, will also have repercussions among the driving population.
According to the RACE, based on a report from the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), the elderly group represents 12% of the census of drivers, 23% of those killed on the road and 14% of the injured serious. Therefore, given the increase in the population of older adults, those responsible for the study are alerted by the threat that this can represent for the safety of our roads.
In 2021, the director of the DGT himself, Pere Navarro, announced his willingness to review and update both the deadlines and the psychophysical tests for the renewal of the driver's license for the elderly. Current regulations establish that, in general terms, drivers over 65 years of age must renew their license every five years. However, Navarro said that this period is "excessive", since it allows a 90-year-old person to keep it all this time without renewing it.
Said modification is included in the Road Safety Strategy 20230. However, to carry it out it is necessary that the new European directive on driving licenses be approved beforehand. The idea is not in any way to prohibit driving from a certain age, but to examine older people more often and better to ensure that they are fit to drive vehicles on public roads.
As explained by Luis Montoro, president of the Spanish Foundation for Road Safety (FESVIAL) and professor of Road Safety at the University of Valencia, the accident rate among the elderly is caused by a loss of psychophysical abilities, to which is added " a significant lack of knowledge of regulations and risks”.
Despite this, older people who drive see the car as a symbol of freedom, even of life, because for them it means that they are still able to get behind the wheel and move without depending on third parties. Such is the case of Federico Gómez, who lives in a rural area of Girona. His children live far away and he needs his vehicle to travel everywhere, together with his wife. "If we have to go to the doctor, I need to drive and if we want to go to the supermarket, too, so even if I'm 85 years old and I'm not the same driver as when I was 60, the car is essential in our lives," he confesses. Federico, who can't imagine stopping using it for reasons of age, even though he admits that his ability is not the same as before.
For Marina Gallardo, professor of psychology and aging on the Psychology degree at the UAB, limiting driving can represent serious problems for those who suffer from it, since it could trigger behavioral disorders, such as irritability, and even depressive symptoms "when they are away from the possibility of moving freely and being autonomous to do what they want”. For this specialist in older people, it is necessary that objective and individual criteria be applied when applying restrictions, since "it is a very heterogeneous group where each individual is a world".
“If one day I can't drive or they tell me I shouldn't, that day they will clip my wings. Who will take us to the medical center or to do the shopping? After more than 60 years of driving, this really anguishes me and I think it shouldn't be like this, but we can't do much more either”, explains Pedro Soria, a veteran driver from a town in the Empordà, who sees the future of his mobility pessimistically.
The paternalism exercised by families, especially the children of drivers, is also a very decisive factor in the abandonment of driving tasks. For this reason, "giving up driving a vehicle can be somewhat traumatic because they find that one of those milestones they had achieved in life -such as finding a job, getting married or having children- vanishes due to age issues and that, whether we want it or not, no, they mark self-esteem”, explains Sergi Arenas, psychologist and head of the senior program at the UAB.
This is a serious impact on their self-esteem that, for Arenas, takes place after approximately 75 years of age, which is when the family environment of these drivers begins to worry about the age of their parents and the possible risks they take on the road. “Rather it is a question of values, which in practice may not amount to much, since it often happens that they are people who keep the car in the garage, religiously pay insurance and property taxes. circulation, but in reality they have not been in transit for a long time”, the expert notes.
In this sense, from the Spanish Association of Medical-Psychotechnical Centers (ASECEMP), they advocate individually analyzing the profile of each individual and not only of the elderly group, but of all drivers. "The reality of each person is different and being older does not mean not being able to drive, since there are many veteran drivers who do it better than many 50-year-olds," explains Bonifacio Martín, general secretary of the Spanish Association of Medical and Psychotechnical Centers. (Asecemp).
Precisely, to determine a more objective evaluation, the ASECEMP representative believes that "we should be able to access the clinical and medical history of each driver - just as any pharmacy in Spain can do - to determine if the possible pathologies suffered by the patient influence driving or if the drugs he could take are incompatible with the tasks behind the wheel”, he explains. In the same way, “we would see that many other people from other age groups could not continue driving either”, he explains.
The head of the senior program asks not to stigmatize the group, even despite its ability to limit itself. Arenas confirms that veteran drivers tend to restrict driving that makes them uncomfortable or with which they do not feel so comfortable. “Night driving, rainy days, normally congested areas or speeding are just some of the censorships that are applied and that prevents them from being involved in traffic incidents,” he explains.
Sporadically, public opinion questions the suitability of elderly users to continue driving, since the group is often involved in certain incidents originating from causes related to longevity, such as attention deficit, lack of reflexes, ignorance of the regulations or other factors. Although, the statistics also warn that they are not the only ones to embody the tragic ranking of accidents, because those under 25 years of age, that is, the opposite extreme to that of old age, also take the cake in terms of accidents and, not because of Therefore, no one questions whether or not they should drive.
