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Make up for slower reflexes by looking down the road
By BOB ENGLISH
Thursday, November 4, 2004
Last week, we tried to make the case that attitude is more important than age in terms of traffic safety, that an alert mature driver with the right attitude is a safer driver than someone much younger who is not paying attention or has a poor attitude.
Still, there is no denying that we deteriorate with age -- in a lot of ways. Knowing what is likely to happen, recognizing the process and dealing with it, can make a great deal of difference in how safe we are at the wheel at any age. After all, our eyesight and reflexes start to deteriorate around age 22.
But growing older doesn't mean you have to quit driving. We do not -- and should not -- lose a licence simply because of the time that has lapsed since we were born. We should, however, lose our licence when we reach a point where we endanger other road users. The trick is delaying when we reach that point and recognizing it when we do.
Aging brings change, both physical and mental. Some of this has little effect on driving, some has significant effect. Eyesight, hearing and reflexes play key roles in our ability to drive.
The bad news is that all of them will deteriorate with age. The good news is that there are corrective measures for each of them.
Eyesight is arguably the most critical factor related to driving. Our ability to monitor traffic, identify and react to situations determines whether we are safe at the wheel or not. If we don't see a problem in time to take appropriate action, we have a problem.
Similarly, if our hearing reaches a stage where we need assistance, we will immediately be better off than before we recognized the problem.
Experience and reflexes are an odd couple. As we gain the experience needed to know what to do in an emergency, the reflexes that determine how quickly we do it go downhill. But there is an answer.
Just as corrective lenses and hearing aids can result in safer driving, so can looking farther down the road. Our eyes get lazy with age and, as drivers, we do too. Instead of looking way down the road, we gradually reduce how far we look.
Reversing that is the answer to slower reflexes. Using our corrected and improved vision, we can make a habit of monitoring the traffic environment farther ahead and at a greater circumference around us. Using our mirrors and a scanning routine, we can keep an eye on traffic behind and on the sides and by looking 10 to 30 seconds ahead, instead of just over the hood, gaining critical, life-saving seconds.
Speed and distance are related. Picture two scenarios:
A) Vehicle travelling 100 km/h, 20-year-old driver looking five seconds ahead.
B) Vehicle travelling same speed, 80-year-old driver looking 10 seconds ahead.
A child runs on to the road.
Driver A, with the eyesight and reflexes of an Olympic athlete, travels about 30 metres (one second) before identifying the problem and another 10 metres (one-third of a second) before getting his foot off the gas and on the brake. The vehicle travels another 30 metres before coming to a full emergency stop. Total distance: 70 metres or 21/3 seconds -- provided that driver was paying attention.
Driver B, because of poorer vision and slower reflexes, takes half a second longer to identify the issue and another half second is added due to slower reflexes. Total distance: 100 metres, a difference of 30 metres between point of identification and full stop.
But, since Driver B was looking five seconds farther down the road, he had an extra 150 metres of reaction space. Even if he used up 30 of them, he's stopped 120 metres farther from the child than Driver A.
In other words, simply looking farther down the road can help make up for slower reflexes. It doesn't cure the problem, but it does make for a safer driver.
Halifax-based Richard Russell
runs a driving school.
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