A few months ago our family received some terrible news. A friend of the family had been involved is an auto accident and upon arrival to Methodist hospital the horrible details were learned. Mr. James Oakman and his wife along with their best friends of over 50 years were returning home at approx. 7:30 from dining out. Mr. Oakman age 74 was driving in the center lane of I-45 North when he swore he saw a car stopped in his lane of traffic and swerved to avoid an accident, or so he thought. Truthfully there was no car in his lane at all, what he saw was the taillights of a car almost 100 yards away safely pulled to the shoulder. This car had a flat tire and the father of the four children inside was trying to change the flat tire to get his kids home. Only seconds later, Mr. Oakman's Ford truck crossed two lanes of traffic and slammed into the parked car instantly killing the father of four, the man's 4 year old child and Mr. Oakman's best friend.
At the hospital, Mrs. Oakman kept saying "I told him that he did not need to be driving anymore" and "This is not the first time a problem like this happened". .
One other ironic event was Mr. Oakman had just renewed his driver's license two months earlier on his birthday. .
Elderly Americans and driving is a truly difficult subject in our society. This subject has passionate feelings on all sides. Some say driving is the right of all Americans. Some others say that we should not discriminate against the elderly, and believe if you can drag yourself into a car and can read an eye chart every few years, you should be allowed to drive indefinitely, but should that be the case?.
For the next 10 - 12 minutes we will discuss 3 questions.
• #1 - As we age, does it become more physically and mentally difficult to drive? .
