A 44-year-old mother was killed and her five-year-old son critically injured when hit by a car in the parking lot of a shopping center – Village Montpellier – on Sunday afternoon.
Witnesses tried in vain to help move the vehicle. Emergency responders were able to lift the vehicle using special equipment, and whisk the young boy and his mother to hospital – the latter succumbing to her injuries early in the evening.
The driver of the car, a man in his 90’s, could scarcely remember what happened in the moments leading up to the fatal collision.
Police say he was waiting for someone inside of the shopping center when his car started to roll forward. He was not injured or taken to hospital after the impact.
Although police have not officially announced that the man’s age factored in the accident – it has some critics questioning if there should be a workable age limit for drivers.
Susan Sofer, an occupational therapist responsible for determining whether people are fit to drive, says there are telltale signs of a person’s competence behind the wheel.
“Concerns would be noticing that perhaps [drivers’] parents are getting more lost than usual, there’s more dings in the car, is the car in the repair shop?” Sofer explained.
But according to Dr. Jamie Dow, a medical advisor for the SAAQ, elderly drivers are actually some of the safest on the road.
Drivers 90 and over caused 9 out of 1000 accidents that led to injuries or death, with slightly lower numbers for drivers between 75 and 84 years of age.
It’s young drivers – between 16 and 19 – that cause the most accidents: almost three times as many as the oldest drivers on the road.
"The most accident-prone group is the under-25-year-olds. They form about 18 percent of the total population of drivers in Quebec. They have 25 percent or a quarter of the accidents. Whereas the people 65 and over are also 18 percent of the driving population, they have eight percent of the accidents," said Dr. Dow.
The SAAQ conducts eye tests on 100,000 seniors 75 and older every year. Of those tested, about 100 will lose their right to drive, but most are renewed, sometimes with conditions such as having to wear eyeglasses, or having restricted driving when it is dark.
Driving simulators are designed to test a driver’s reaction time, providing clues to determine if it’s time to discuss the possibility of staying off the roads.
“The conversation has to start early, and in most cases people do. They start to restrict their driving, they don’t go out at night, they don’t go out in traffic, they don’t go out in the snow,” explained Pierro Hirsh of Virage Simulation, a company using the aforementioned simulators to train, and re-train, drivers.
But it’s not an easy choice, Sofer explained. Losing one’s license means a loss of independence, and often a sense of isolation.
“Having a driver’s license becomes part of the individual. It’s our autonomy – we gain it at 16 and we keep driving, and that’s all people want,” she said.
