The topic of elderly drivers has become part of common conversation with political standpoints in Florida within the past few years. Its rise of importance has had little effect on settling the arguments. If anything, it has done nothing but complicate matters further by introducing new interest from senior citizen organizations. Organizations such as the AARP have risen to fame defending the freedom of the elderly who demand to continue cruising the highways. As the issue has gained popularity, it seems reasonable that decisions must soon be made to decide the fate of the current system of detecting incapable elderly drivers. It would be in the best interest of drivers of all ages and pedestrians if mandatory testing of elderly drivers over the age of sixty-five be instituted biannually throughout the state of Florida.
             Many argue that the percentage of the elderly community that is licensed is much lower than that of the younger groups. This means that the elderly as a group have less licensed drivers out of their total population when compared to the percentage of licensed drivers existing in younger groups. The reasoning behind this is that the small percentage of elderly drivers cannot be filtered any further. Also, the elderly drive fewer miles per licensed driver than the average, meaning that the small part of the elderly community that is licensed drives less than the younger groups of drivers. These two arguments combined are believed to be worthy of lowering the importance of the issue in setting laws to this group.
             However, it is not how often they drive that should be the argument, it is what damage they cause when they do. The small percentage of elderly licensed drivers have a much higher rate of fatal crashes per licensed driver than any other group, excluding teen drivers. Seven thousand seventy-eight people aged sixty-five and older died in motor vehicle crashes in the year 1996 ("Facts" 1). All were ca...