OOMC News

Older Driver Safety Awareness Week highlights the vital role that mobility and transportation play to keep older adults active in their communities. As we age, we notice changes in our physical, mental and sensory abilities that can sometimes cause a challenge in our ability to drive safely.

One way to remain a safe driver as we age is to stay on top of your eye care.  Adequate vision helps you identify road hazards, read signs and see alerts on your dashboard. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, visual acuity and field of vision (visual field) are the most important factors for safe driving. Visual acuity gauges how clearly you can see and is measured by reading letters on an eye chart, while field of vision measures how wide of an area you eye can see when you focus on a central point.

Staying on top of these two factors can avoid potential problems when driving at dusk or dawn.

Other types of eye-related issues to keep in mind are:

• Color Blindness: struggle to identify traffic signals or brake lights.
• Contrast Sensitivity: difficulty seeing pedestrians walking along poorly lit roads and road signs in fog or at night.
• Useful Field of View: delay reaction time as we age and struggle to process information in complex environments.
• Depth Perception: unable to judge the distance of objects in relation to ourselves, especially when those objects are moving toward or away from us.
• Peripheral Vision: inability to see outside your immediate field of view.

Here are some tips to keep in mind to stay on-top of your vision care:

• Have regular eye examinations by a licensed ophthalmologist or optometrist.
• Ask if you should get separate glasses for day and night driving.
• Ask about anti-reflective coatings on eyeglasses to reduce glare and improve night vision.
• Do not use eyeglass frames with wide temples (side pieces); they may restrict side vision.
• Reducing driving at night, dusk or dawn when visibility is more limited.
• Use caution when driving in rain or fog, or when snow, sleet or ice are present.

Getting older does not mean that you should not get behind the wheel. It just means that we have to take extra precautions to avoid newly presented challenges that we did not have to deal with when we were younger. And let’s face it, this is something that EVERYONE will have to deal with one day.

If you’re noticing changes in your vision and want to stay on-top of your eye health,  schedule a consultation at Phillips Eye Specialists!