Senior centers are hopping places these days, and the classes offered aren’t just your grandmother’s canasta club. Some of the most popular courses offered at the East Lyme Senior Center are the Mature Driver Safety classes offered monthly.
The center serves as host for the AARP Driver Safety, the the nation's first and largest refresher course for drivers age 50 and older. Some people might remember “55 Alive,” but now it’s simply called the driver safety program and has been taken by millions of motorists around the country since it started in 1979. It also can be taken online at AARP’s website.
The eight-hour course is offered in two 4-hour sessions, usually on subsequent days, during the daytime, in the East Lyme Library conference room. Space is limited, so advance reservations and payment of the $10 fee are required.
“All of us, not just people over 50 or 60, can use a refresher course on driving, particularly as traffic gets crazier on I-95,” said Cathy Wilson, East Lyme Senior Center director. The center has been hosting the class for at least 13 years, as long as she’s been there. Frequency of the course has increased and she is considering offering evening sessions in response to increased demand.
Drivers age 55 and older have more accidents per mile driven than adults 30 to 54, according to the AARP website. The key is “miles driven,” which tends to be less in a driver’s later years. The accident rate rises sharply at age 75.
The biggest cause, according to AARP, is failure to observe the right-of-way. The second most common cause of driving accidents by seniors is making improper left-hand turns. These result from not obeying the turn signs and signals, trying to make the turn from the wrong location, or misjudging the speed of oncoming cars.
Ann Rose of Mystic has been teaching the classes for at least six years on both sides of the Thames River. She and Dick Harrington are regulars as AARP instructors in East Lyme.
Joan Smith, Niantic, 90, decided it was finally time to semi-retire some months back after organizing the program in the state and being an instructor. So, she’s assistant state coordinator of the program. She also continues to drive.
The coordinators and instructors, who are required to complete extensive training and follow AARP’s detailed Driver Safety Program manual, are volunteers.
Seniors, especially the men, can think they already know everything, Smith said - or at least more than the instructor leading the safe driving refresher course.
But she often has stumped both men and women by asking if they know the best way to stop quickly with ABS brakes, now standard on most cars. Pumping the brakes, which works on disc brakes that most adult drivers grew up with, isn’t the right answer.
Smith said she gets a lot of blank stares, too, when she asks people if they know what to do if the car is hydroplaning, or traveling out of control on wet surfaces. Not only senior citizens have learned what to do from listening to her.
“‘Grandma saved my life today,’” Smith said, recounting what her then 16-year-old grandson told his mother. Just a few days after he’d gotten his driver’s licence, the teen found his car hydroplaning and remembered that she had told him not to slam on the breaks or jerk the wheel in that situation.
While the popularity of the course is driven largely by discounts that people age 50 and over can get from their car insurance carriers, Smith and Rose said anyone who attends comes away with new or refreshed insights on safe driving and why it is particularly important for aging Americans.
Being able to continue driving safely is key to helping older Americans maintain their activity levels and interests, Rose said.
“There are no exams at the end of the course,” she added, which also appeals to adults.
The AARP instructors often will start the session, though, with a quiz. This quickly helps many seniors who think they know it all and just came to get the insurance discount realize otherwise.
Another answer that has changed over the years is “How do you calculate the safe distance between your car and the one you are following?”
Driver education courses used to make it complicated with equations, which are distracting enough to cause an accident or make one miss their exit. The rule now is to make a three-second count between the cars, which works at any speed, according to AARP.
Other area communities that host the course include Groton Long Point, Ledyard, Montville, Mystic, New London and Old Lyme.
For more information go to www.arp.org and for East Lyme Senior Center, go to www.eltownhall.com