How to Take Away Your Parents Car Keys and Help Prevent Tampa Car Accidents

An elderly couple is out for a drive when the husband, who can hardly see over the dashboard, runs a red light. His wife asks, “Dear, do you know you just ran a red light.” A few minutes later the husband runs another red light. A little louder this time the wife asks, “Dear, do you know you just ran a red light?” When it happens a third time, the wife figures her husband doesn’t hear her or she’s just being ignored so she nudges him and says in a very loud voice “Dear, do you know you just ran a red light.” The husband turns to her and with a bewildered expression asks, “Oh, am I driving.”

Unfortunately, it’s no joke that elderly drivers are FOUR times more likely to be the cause of fatal car accidents in Florida than any other age group, including teenagers. And as a rapidly aging nation, things are about to get much worse. The number of drivers 70 and older is expected to triple over the next 20 years. State legislatures are beginning to address this issue. But in retirement states like Florida with large elderly populations, politics and business triumph over the grim statistics.

So it may be up to you to protect your loved ones by taking away their car keys before they get into a Tampa car accident that injures themselves or others. And trust me…it won’t be easy. I have a 102 year old grandparent in an assisted living facility who has no peripheral and can’t see at night who fought taking his keys away with the same fervor that Americans fought the British for their independence in the Revolutionary War.

Here’s some tips that worked for my family and may help yours:

First, taking the keys away should be a process done over time. The worst time to do it is only after a Tampa car accident has already occurred. And if you start taking action upon the first clear signs of driving impairment, you won’t feel that you have to accomplish the task in one overwhelming conversation. Any Tampa injury law firm will tell you to consider using gradual persuasion by dropping hints, statistics, off hand comments like can you believe so and so still drives even though I heard her doctor said to stop.

Second, prepare. There’s a lot of good information out there because a lot of folks are also now dealing with this issue. Go to www.caring.com/older-drivers. They have instructional videos and articles on this topic that can be very helpful.

Third, consider limitations on driving at first rather than taking the keys away altogether. This allows your loved one time to adjust to the loss of independence.

Fourth, consider enlisting the aid of your parents’ doctor. Hearing their doctor’s objective opinion about their driving capability may help a parent face the facts. Consider enlisting the aid of certain of your parents’ friends. It’s a heck of a lot easier for a parent to listen to a contemporary than their children about these matters. You might otherwise face a parent who quotes Bill Cosby when he said to his TV kids: “I brought you into this world and I can take you out.”

Fifth, if everything else fails and as a very last resort you might need to consider filing an unsafe-driver report with the state motor vehicle department, hiding the keys or disabling the vehicle [i.e. you could leave the lights on all night, pull wires or drive the vehicle to a remote location].

Tampa car accident attorneys can attest that nothing will make taking the car keys away from your parents or grandparents easy. It’s an awkward start to the reversal of roles in the family where the parents become the children and the children become the parents. Although not easy this is a very important issue that shouldn’t be ignored because we’re talking about saving lives in Tampa car accidents that can result in fatalities, not just your parents, but other drivers and pedestrians as well.

Click here to contact us.