Committee recommends Mass. elderly driver bill

BOSTON -- A bill that would require Massachusetts drivers, age 75 or older, to pass cognitive and physical exams every time they renew their licenses won the backing of a key legislative committee Tuesday.

The proposed crackdown follows a spate of accidents involving elderly drivers in the state, including an incident in June when an 88-year-old driver struck and killed a 4-year-old girl in Stoughton.

The bill, which won the backing of the Joint Committee on Transportation, would also allow doctors and police officers to report to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles if they believe a driver is unable to safely operate a car. The operator's license would be suspended until a review by the registrar could be conducted within 30 days.

Older drivers would be required to pass the tests when their license is renewed every five years. They would also have the right to appeal.

Supporters of the bill say it is long overdue and is designed to make the streets safer for everyone.

"There are those who suggest that we arbitrarily came up with an age," said Sen. Steve Baddour, D-Methuen, co-chairman of the committee. "If New Hampshire and other states can come up with an age so can we."

Drivers in New Hampshire must take road tests to renew their licenses after they reach 75.

Safe Roads Now -- a coalition of groups including the AARP, the Alzheimer's Association of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging and Senior Center Directors -- said the bill unfairly targets older drivers.

They say the legislation wrongly links the requirement of a test to age instead of ability and said the medical reporting system is too weak.

"The bill proposes new cognitive and physical testing, but is short on specifics. What are the tests? How will they be administered?" the group said in a statement, adding that the bill "represents a lost opportunity to develop a tangible, evidence-based solution for reform."

The group said the state should instead require in-person driver license renewals throughout a driver's life and adopt tests currently used in California designed to measure visual acuity, peripheral vision and divided attention.

Lawmakers said the bill was still a work in progress and would likely be modified before it reaches both chambers for a final vote.

"This is probably going to be tweaked or changed a little bit as it goes through the legislative process," said Rep. Joseph Wagner, D-Chicopee Democrat, the committee's House chairman. "This is a starting point, but I think it is a reasonably strong point."

Wagner said he expected the bill to reach the House for a debate sometime in October.

Massachusetts lawmakers are coming under increasing pressure to act.

In June, 88-year-old Ilse Horn was charged with hitting and killing 4-year-old Diya Patel in a crosswalk as the girl crossed a street with her grandfather and two siblings in Stoughton. Horn later pleaded guilty to negligent motor vehicle homicide and lost her driver's license for 10 years.

A 79-year-old Weymouth man pleaded not guilty to negligent motor vehicle homicide in the death of a Weymouth police officer who was killed while he was directing traffic. Ronald Gale was charged with running a stop sign, hitting another car and pinning Officer Michael Davey to a utility truck Aug. 24.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)