We live in Texas, and my dad went down to the DMV shortly after his 84th birthday to turn in his license for a state id card because he is becoming blind. Instead of issuing an id card, the clerk simply renewed his license, even though he couldn’t pass the eye test. However, he had already decided not to drive and had given his car away.
Then my mom had the same thing happen – she has severe Parkinson’s and my dad took her down to the DMV to get her an id card, and despite the fact that she was in a wheel chair and had no idea where she was they renewed her license, too.
Both my parents may legally drive for the next six years. Fortunately, they are wise enough to know they shouldn’t.
It could be worse – in Connecticut, where we lived when we had to take my grandfather’s keys away, you can still drive legally with 20/200 vision. And we didn’t actually take his keys away because he wouldn’t let us have them, However, after his last accident we refused to get his car repaired.
While I know many drivers over 65 who drive just fine, as well as many younger drivers who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the driver’s seat, I do think as folks age there should be some sort of method of evaluating their driving ability. In fact, it might be simpler to just require everybody who has had an accident during the term of their current license to retest rather than getting an automatic renewal through the mail. The difficulty is that people age at different rates and suffer from different impairments, so there is no “one size fits all” solution.