Should Pa. Have Mandatory Testing For Elderly Drivers?

When Target 11’s Rick Earle investigated elderly drivers in Pennsylvania, he found some of the oldest drivers live in Allegheny County.

As part of his investigation, Earle took a ride with 79-year-old Victoria D’Angelo to see just how old is too old to drive.

D'Angelo, who will turn 80 in July, told Earle she doesn’t have a problem driving, but not all senior citizens are like her.,

During Earle’s investigation, he saw one older driver pull his car out into an intersection and stop, forcing motorists to go around him.

Target 11 researched PennDot records and found some of the oldest drivers in the state are on the roads in the Pittsburgh area.

In Pennsylvania, there are more than a million drivers over the age of 65. Of those there are 81 are over the age of 100 and nine of them live right in Allegheny County.

Joe Schneider teaches a driving safety class for senior citizens.

He says signs of trouble are sometimes hard to catch.

Earle looked at requirements for all 50 states and found about half of them passed some form of elderly driver restrictions.

Florida requires vision tests for drivers over 80.

Illinois and New Hampshire are the only states that require road tests for applicants over 75.

Pennsylvania which has a higher percentage of senior citizens than any other state except Florida has no restrictions.

PennDot said accident rates for drivers over 65 represent only 13 percent of all crashes in the state.

According to national traffic data, drivers over 75 are more likely to die in an accident than teenagers and drivers over 85 are four times more likely to die in a crash than a teen.

PennDot claims it already has safety measures in place.

Every month, the state requires a physical exam and eye test from 1,600 randomly selected drivers over the age of 45.

And physicians in Pennsylvania are required by law to report any person over the age of 15 who has a medical condition that may affect driving.

Doctor Amy Genarri of UPMC’s senior care says most of her patients know their limitations, “Most of my patients voluntarily stop driving. The vast majority stop driving because they realize they just can't do it anymore.”

So who is the oldest driver in Pennsylvania?

There are two who are 106 years old.

One lives near Philadelphia and the other you may see driving right on the roads in Allegheny County.