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You are: Home | Driving
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Driving
Community
Companions offers a solution to the problem of balancing freedom of
mobility with safety concerns through companion driving services.
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Driving services offered by Community Companions.
Driving is often one of the greatest challenges to independent living
for senior citizens. The elderly population is often faced with the
dilemma of choosing between safety and mobility because of the inherent
hazards of the road and the physical limitations associated with
aging. Many senior citizens choose to brave the city streets in
their own private automobiles, putting themselves and other drivers at
risk of serious injury. Others utilize public transportation and
find that it is an option which is often ill equipped to accommodate
the specialized needs of senior citizens. Some seniors resolve
themselves to the confinements of their immediate neighborhood or
residence, thus making a compromise in mobility to satisfy the
responsibility of ensuring personal safety.
Community
Companions offers a solution to the problem of balancing freedom of
mobility with safety concerns through companion driving services.
This is a function of Community Companions’ senior home care which
frees the client from a home-bound situation, to enjoy the simple
aspects of his/her lifestyle without the stress and worry of the
transportation dilemma. Your companion home care provider can
chauffeur you or your loved one to: his/her doctor’s appointments, run
everyday errands such as grocery shopping, attend religious services, pick up prescription medications from the local pharmacy or drug store, social outings,
visit family and friends, enjoy public parks and museums, keep hair and
nail appointments, or anywhere else he/she might need to go. Put
simply it is the freedom of mobility with the peace of mind that the
senior in your life will not find himself/herself in a dangerous
situation.
Medical conditions that put elderly drivers at greater risk of being involved in a traffic accident.
When
evaluating whether such a service is right for you or your loved one,
it is important to weigh all of the factors involved. Here are
some key of those factors to consider in making a decision regarding
this kind of assistance.
Medical realities put elderly drivers at
higher risk of getting into traffic accidents. As we age eyesight
and hearing loss play a larger role in determining what we are able to
do unassisted in our daily lives. For senior citizens, these
realities of aging make them particularly susceptible to driver-error
causes of traffic accidents. Vision loss, specifically, can
greatly increase the likelihood of a collision. The loss or reduction
of depth perception, or worse yet, the onset of cataracts, glaucoma or
uncorrected and acute astigmatisms severely decrease a driver’s ability
to safely operate a motor vehicle. Any or all of these visual
problems can be caused and/or exacerbated by the normal aging process.
They are all common ailments amongst the elderly population.
While some conditions may be correctable, in most situations these
effects of aging occur so gradually that the senior may not realize the
extent of the problem. In these cases an elderly driver can be an
unwitting hazard to oneself and others.
Failing eyesight is not the only compelling
medical reason to consider driving assistance from Community
Companions. Hearing loss can prove to be an equally hazardous
condition on the streets and freeways of a city. The ability to hear
emergency sirens, screeching tires and car horns can prove to be a
necessary skill for defensive driving. The roadways present hazards
from numerous directions. In order to operate a vehicle safely
and responsibly, an alert driver must be able to hear the dangers
he/she cannot immediately see. A fast approaching emergency
vehicle is the perfect example. For most drives the sound of a
fire engine’s siren is the most immediate indication of its location
and direction of travel. But for someone with significant hearing loss,
as do most senior citizens, this essential warning is lost. A dangerous
situation results in which the emergency vehicle may be right on the
elderly driver’s bumper before he/she see the flash of its lights in
the rearview mirror. Another such example is the “blind spot”
present in all vehicles. This gap in the visual coverage
capability of a car’s mirror system means that at times the only
indication one might have of an impending sideswipe while changing
lanes is the honk of the vehicle in the adjacent lane. Sever
hearing loss may prevent such audible cues to avoiding danger and
result in traffic accidents.
Finally, the stress of driving on gridlocked
city streets and congested freeway systems can put undo strain on older
drivers. The stresses inherent in metropolitan driving can
aggravate existing physical conditions. Seniors with congestive heart
failure, hypertension, who have suffered from a previous heart attack
or have a history of heart arrhythmias, and those with chronic
illnesses such as diabetes or asthma, may be putting themselves though
unnecessary strain by insisting on driving. It is a contentious medical
decision to seek the assistance of a caring professional driver in
these cases.
Diminishing reflexes can increase the likelihood of an elderly driver causing a traffic accident.
The world at highway speeds is a treacherous place for any driver. This
is especially true for elder drivers. It is a physiological fact
that a person’s reflexes slow as one enters his/her golden years. This
slowing continues with age which has a naturally adverse affect on
his/her driving skills. The effect of arthritis compounds the problem
and can make the preciously brief moment that separates accident
avoidance from calamity an insurmountable obstacle. Even an
arthritic-free senior will struggle to have sharp enough reflexes to
avoid many accidents. Common occurrences such as hydroplaning on wet
road conditions, the sudden flash of break lights when quickly
approaching a breaking vehicle, or a child darting across the street
after a stray basketball can become a life-altering event to a senior
who cannot react fast enough!
In the event that a senior citizen is
involved in a traffic accident, the consequences are often greater.
Elderly people are generally frailer than younger people and are less
able to heal when they suffer physical injury. The effects of
osteoporosis can mean broken or fractured bones from the sudden yank of
a taught seatbelt or the jarring of a steering wheel crashing into the
driver’s body. Furthermore, because older people are generally smaller
and have comparably poorer vision, they statistically sit closer to the
steering wheel than the average American driver does. This presents a
greater risk of serious injury resulting from the deployment of
airbags. All of these factors increase the severity of injuries
sustained by an elderly driver when involved in a traffic accident.
The dangers of roadside car problems to elderly drivers.
Elderly
drivers are ill-equipped to deal with breakdowns. A breakdown
such as a tire blow out or running out of gas is typically an
inconvenience; but for a senior citizen it can be much worse. Those in
their golden years often lack the physical strength or stamina to
change a tire or push a car to the shoulder of the road. They
likely will not be physically able to walk to a gas station to use a
phone or fill a gas can. This means that when an elderly driver
is stranded from a breakdown, he or she must wait with the vehicle for
help to arrive. Tragically, all too often such an event proves
life threatening, especially during the winter months. In the
bitterly cold temperatures of New York, an elderly person can quickly
suffer hypothermia. If the senior is able to leave the car
running, as in the flat tire scenario, there is a definite risk of
affixation from carbon dioxide build up in the vehicle’s cabin.
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