The D.C. city Council is considering changes to the driver's license renewal policy that they currently have for elderly drivers.

Last year the D.C. Council had passed rules (laws) requiring drivers 75 and older to pass both a road test and a written exam making their regulation of older drivers among the toughest in the nation, if not the toughest.

These changes were made after a rash of incidents where elderly drivers in other areas had gone out of control, in one infamous case where the driver plowed into a crowd of people injuring several and killing a few.

Now the grey-hairs are all up in arms over these requirements, crying about age discrimination and saying the rules are too harsh and not fair because many of these drivers haven't had bad driving records.

Personally I think D.C. got it right when they passed the new requirements, and I wish like hell that all jurisdictions would have followed suit.  Sorry to the AARP set, but elderly drivers, despite in some cases years of good driving records, are slower reflexed and more prone to *cause* accidents or potentially be involved in accidents than just about any other age group (teens and the under 25 years old crowd remain the highest group prone to accidents).

Though elderly drivers may not be directly involved in accidents, they can many times be part of the cause of accidents thanks to slower driving, unsafe lane changes, unsafe turns, blinkers left on for miles and miles or turned on well in advance of where they intend to turn and other things that are all signs of a driver that is older and not as sharp on the roadways as the youthful crowd around them.

There's also the issue of drivers that find facets of alzheimers setting in that they may not recognize.  Memory loss, and unfamiliarity with new roadways, etc.  And finally, there's the issue of changes made to driving laws along the way that make written exams invaluable in helping to keep drivers that aren't really ready for the roadways off of them.

Is it insulting to older drivers with apparently clean records to have to take these tests again?   Perhaps.  But perhaps the life that is saved is your own, or that of a loved one, and in that case isn't all of this worth the inconvenience and hassle to the generations before us?

I know I'd probably be frustrated at having to get retested again every so often, but I also know it would make me study the rules of the road, and make me practice my driving so I'd be ready to demonstrate that I could handle the task and keep my license.  Perhaps the grey-hairs in D.C. should see how they do on the tests before complaining, and even then perhaps they should recognize what the results of the tests are telling them if they fail them.  It just might be the thing that saves a life.