Local Chiropractor Bands Together with the AOTA to Keep Our Elders Safe on the Roads This December
Dr. Matt Hubbard and his team at True Chiropractic just wrapped up a week long observance of Older Driver Safety Awareness at the start of December. The initiative aims to protect, equip, and inform elderly drivers for the safety of all on the road.
San Diego, CA, December 9, 2014 (Newswire.com) - According to the Center of Disease Control & Prevention: Motor Safety Division, automobile accidents increase in drivers over 75 and continue to rocket for drivers in their eighties. Further statistics approximate that 15 older adults are killed daily in vehicle crashes and more than 500 are injured each day in car accidents as well. Some authorities conceptualize the problem being that there should be a blanket cut off for the maximum age of safe driving, but others disagree.
In an effort to preserve all older adults’ legal rights to drive while still keeping the roads safe for them and other drivers/passengers, the American Occupational Therapy Association began an initiative to raise awareness. The first week of December has thus been dubbed “Older Driver Safety Awareness Week.” Occupational Therapists nationwide have joined forces to inform older adults and the public about safety precautions for older drives and initiatives to let older drives manage in the “slow lane.” Some OTs are pushing a “slow lane” awareness movement, reminding drivers that the left lane is not for speeding, but for passing at or under the posted speed, therefore leaving the right lane to be perfectly drivable by slower drivers, who may include those with vision impairments and the elderly.
Initiatives also aim to inform the elderly on ways that they can keep themselves safe on the road and include driving tips and general riding safety. Dr. Matt Hubbard of True Chiropractic San Diego was motivated by the efforts put out by the OT community. Dr. Hubbard sees patients for automobile accident related injuries often and says that many of them are elderly. His experience is that elderly patients often have a longer road to recovery and that initiatives to protect their right to drive are essential. The True Chiropractic team proudly joins forces not only during ODSA week, but year round, in helping elderly patients rehab auto accident injuries and – preferably – to prevent them.