Medications And Driver Safety

Yesterday I blogged about an event that many baby-boomers are going to have to face and that is making the decision to see that their elderly driver parents give up their cars and driving privileges. This morning I read an interesting article outlining the finding of a study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

According to the survey, 95 percent of respondents 55 and older have one or more medical conditions and 78 percent use one or more medications, yet only 28 percent indicated some awareness of the potential impact on driving performance associated with those medications. Few respondents (18 percent) had received a warning about potentially driver impairing medications (e.g. ACE inhibitors, sedatives, and beta blockers) from a healthcare professional. Further, the study found that such warnings do not increase with increasing numbers of medications or with increasing numbers of medical conditions.

Previous research indicates that use of a single potentially driver impairing medication as well as use  of multiple medications increases the risk of being in a crash. The age range was from 56 to 93 and the level of awareness of potentially driver impairing medications decreased with age, while in  contrast the number of prescription medications people were taking increased. Of those surveyed, 69 percent currently use one or more prescription potentially driver impairing medication and 10 percent currently use five or  more prescription potentially driver impairing medications.

“Health care professionals need to educate patients about their potentially driver impairing medications to help them make safe driving decisions” said AAA Foundation President and CEO Peter Kissinger. “One of our goals is to help older drivers stay mobile as long as safely possible; so, it is imperative that we do a better job of educating drivers on known risks,  such as the side‐effects of medications.”

With the number of drivers 55 years of age and older expected to increase by more than half by 2030, this issue will only continue to grow unless measures are taken to increase awareness about medications that can impact safe driving. High-risk groups include those with multiple medical conditions and those taking mutiple medications or potentially driver impairing medications, as well as those with less education.

This is good information not only for elderly drivers and healthcare professionals but also drivers of all ages who take one or more medications for a medical condition. If you would like to find out more information about this and other important driver safety issues go to www.AAAFoundation.org.

If you or a loved is injured or killed by a elderly driver in a Nashville automobile accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates.