So…When IS it time to stop driving?
Former Ohio State Trooper Matt Gurwell spent 20-plus years delivering bad news to family members about accidents involving older drivers. Now instead of delivering death notifications, he’s helping to preserve family relationships and saving lives with a self-assessment tool that his organization has developed titled the “Beyond Driving With Dignity” program.
Matt is the founder of Keeping Us Safe, and Beyond Driving With Dignity is the organization’s proactive approach to helping family members and older drivers make their own decisions, but the right decision, about possibly giving up driving. Not all older adults need to turn over their car keys. In fact, age often has less to do with the decision than cognitive functioning and whether the individual is active.
Matt breaks it all down and tells us how the self-assessment tool works. He explains why handicap parking spots actually increase accidents and why he dreads having the conversation with his own father about giving up the car keys. The work of Keeping Us Safe has been recognized by the NY Times, NPR, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, NBC News and many other media outlets and organizations.
