On Tuesday, a 93-year-old man drove into a Wal-Mart in Danvers, injuring six and sending a 1-year-old to the hospital.
On Wednesday, a 73-year-old woman mistook the gas pedal for the brake and plowed into a crowd gathered in Plymouth to view The Moving Wall, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, injuring seven.
Locally, an 87-year-old woman drove through the front of Piro's Bakery on Route 110 in Methuen in February, injuring several people and scaring many more.
Now calls are growing louder to make older drivers prove they are fit to get behind the wheel.
"These accidents highlight the need for some sort of action," said state Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen.
Baddour chairs the Legislature's joint Transportation Committee, which is considering several bills that target older drivers for more scrutiny. They include proposals for more frequent testing to tougher guidelines on granting licenses to senior citizens. One bill suggests appointing a special commission to investigate "how cognitive impairment may affect (the) right to operate."
"Some want no testing, others want more," Baddour said. "That's where we come in — our job is to balance the demands of the advocacy groups with the interests of public safety. We need to come up with something that will work."
During the previous legislative session, a bill nearly made it through the committee that would have tightened up the driving laws for seniors, "but we couldn't pull it together," said Baddour, adding that such bills have been kicked around for several years.
For the last two sessions, Sen. Brian Joyce, D-Milton, has proposed a bill that would require drivers 85 or older to pass road, as well as vision, tests before their licenses could be renewed.
But intense lobbying from advocates for the elderly has stalled that bill and others.
Some Merrimack Valley residents interviewed at the Methuen Senior Center on Lowell Street yesterday think testing is a good idea. Others are opposed, saying it smacks of age discrimination, and resent the media focus on accidents involving the elderly.
"When an elderly person gets in an accident it's right in your face — on the news and on the front page," said Barbara Skinner, 85, a volunteer at the center's gift shop. "Other accidents by younger drivers are not. And they have more fatalities."
Skinner, who drives every day, said she's been in a couple of accidents in the last few years that weren't her fault. She would hate to give up her right to drive.
"A lot of people don't realize how isolated you become when you can't go out," she said. "Especially when you don't have children."
She objects to testing elderly drivers, saying it's not even clear what the term "elderly" means.
"You can be old at 70 and young at 90," she said. She said several people in their 90s drive to and from their homes and the senior center every day without incident.
Dawn Medugno, 79, agreed that "age is a number," but said testing should be considered for drivers in their late 80s or early 90s.
"I've driven up and down the East Coast and never had an accident," said the Methuen resident. "But if you have any type of infirmity, you should be tested. I know a man who lives upstairs from me and he's 91 and scared to death of going to more driving tests. In his case, he's not as astute as he should be. In some cases, maybe a road test should be done."
Maureen Albis, 72, no longer drives but thinks additional testing would be a good idea.
"A lot of (older) people have medical problems," she said. "They're 95 and driving. That shouldn't be."
But Ida Bardwell, 86, disagreed.
"I have a lot of friends who are competent to drive," she said. "I think they're all right. If the state gives them a license, let them drive."
Ann Dufresne, spokeswoman for the Registry of Motor Vehicles, said Registrar Rachel Kaprielian travels around the state every month speaking at senior centers about the perils of elders driving.
"She initiates a very difficult conversation: When is it time to turn over my keys?" Dufresne said.
Some research does indicate that old drivers have a higher rate of fatal accidents, but only because they are frail and thus more likely to be killed in accidents.
Other studies show that young people are more apt to cause accidents.
Dufresne said the RMV would support a study of the issue, as proposed in a bill sponsored in the Legislature by Sen. Stephen Buoniconti of Hampden.
"We need to look at all the research and see where we're going with this," she said. "The Legislature made wonderful changes in the junior operators law." Similar changes could be made with respect to elderly drivers, she said.
But she agreed with some elder service advocates that "age-based" legislation may not work and that any legislation should be based on medical decisions.
But registry employees are not qualified to determine whether a driver is medically fit to hold a license. That's where physicians have a role to play, Dufresne said. In some states, she said, a doctor who determines a patient is unfit to drive is legally obligated to report that information to the registry, which can revoke that person's license.
Massachusetts has no such law, Dufresne said, but police officers and family members sometimes notify the registry when they believe a driver is potentially dangerous because of medical issues.
To date, some 8,000 drivers have had their medical records reviewed by the registry, and 3,000 of those have voluntarily given up their licenses.
Many more have had road tests and competency exams. Some who have been involved in accidents have lost their licenses as well.
The woman who drove her car into Piro's in February, for example, has had her license taken away, Dufresne said.
Another woman, who drove her car into the White Hen Pantry in Lawrence two years ago, had her license temporarily revoked but was retested and regained it a short time later, Dufresne said.
For many elderly drivers, keeping their licenses is a right they have earned.
Bert Wills, 86, a Haverhill resident who formerly lived in Methuen and who still visits the Methuen Senior Center, said he drives every day. "People a quarter my age — they cause more trouble than we do. I'd bet on our age against their age any day of the week."
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