Defensive driving, providers for people with disabilities, elderly services, pedestrian safety

Older drivers are not the problem

News articles, an editorial and letters have focused on evaluating the risks of older drivers [“Evaluating risks of older drivers,” Editorial, March 21]. Why is that when seniors are not the most dangerous drivers on the road?

You read more about young drivers and drunken drivers getting into bad collisions and causing more fatalities and extensive damage.

I’ve taught defensive driving classes where most seniors said they did not get tickets or were involved in collisions. Demanding that an older person get retested at a certain age is discriminatory and unfair.

I wonder how many middle-aged drivers who had to be retested would fail due to all the bad driving habits they developed.

Most seniors who get into a collision are usually minor fender-benders due to driving too slowly.

When I teach a class, most middle-aged drivers complain that the seniors cause the accidents, and my response is that if you allow someone else to cause you to get into a collision, then you are not driving defensively.

Unfortunately, most drivers taking a defensive driving class take it for the insurance discount and/or point reduction benefit, not the content. I’ve found that seniors rarely take the course for point reduction.

Just look at Newsday news articles. Most articles about fatal collisions involve either drunk drivers or young drivers. When have you read about a senior being a driver involved in a hit-and-run?

— Robert Rothenberg, Valley Stream

A reader suggested annual driver’s tests for those over 75 [“Taking car keys is a problem for seniors,” Letters, March 21]. Why stop there?

Why not test all drivers when their driver’s licenses expire? After all, it’s only every eight years in New York State. Never mind the cost and expansion of the government bureaucracy that would be required.

It certainly could have the desired impact on the number of legal drivers on the road. Unfortunately, the uninsured driver part of their policies would increase due to the likely rise in the number of unlicensed and uninsured drivers besides those already flouting the law.

Complicated problems can have simplistic solutions. Ageism, alas, is still an acceptable form of discrimination.

— Paul Pepe, Massapequa

More public transportation would help those without cars and those who don’t want one, but I do not think it would help people with dementia.

If such a driver gets lost driving on a familiar route, how would that person navigate a bus route and get on and off appropriately? A driver might be able to park in front of a store, but what if that individual has to walk a bit and cross streets when taking a bus?

Of course, some towns have buses that take seniors and the disabled to a site they need to go to, but that, too, has limitations.

— Margaret Dunn, St. James

I can’t believe state is cutting senior funds

I read with disgust “Elderly services backlog” [News, March 21]. How can it be that $9 million is being cut from the state budget to support services to elderly Americans?

These are Americans who have been contributing members of society in their younger years. And yet we have seen dramatic increases in aid to those crossing our borders who have not yet contributed one cent to our economy. I am not against immigration, but I stand firmly with disdain against turning our backs on a generation that has made our country so great.

— Linda Rubacka, Ridge

Providers for disabled need state’s support

As a mother of an adult daughter with developmental disabilities, what keeps me up at night is how the State Legislature plans to address the historic underfunding of disability service providers (DSPs) and the ongoing staffing crisis.

With the recent release of their legislative budgets, there was a provision for a 3.2% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), as requested by disability advocates. However, there was also a condition that the COLA be allocated exclusively to staffing. This narrow language shows narrow thinking.

As Walter Stockton highlighted in his op-ed “NY’s disability support workers need a raise” [Opinion, March 20], disability service providers are still playing catch-up after a decade of underinvestment. It’s why advocates have been calling out for both a 3.2% COLA without qualification to address increasing operating costs, as well as a Direct Support Wage Enhancement (DSWE) to create a living wage for staff helping people with their most intimate tasks of daily living.

Long Islanders should advocate for COLA to be amended and that the Assembly join with the Senate in advancing the DSWE. Otherwise, the health and safety of Long Islanders will continue to be put at risk.

— Saundra Gumerove, Jericho

The writer is board president of AHRC Nassau.

Walter Stockton’s essay is personal to me as the mother of a son with an intellectual and developmental disability. DSPs are the lifeblood of people living in residential settings. Many do not have families, so DSPs are their link with the community, nurses, friends, caregivers and others. Someday, my husband and I will be gone, and we must put our trust in future DSPs.

A great DSP is a caring, giving, compassionate heart with a calling to do this type of work. Too many times, these gifted people cannot continue in this difficult work because they cannot support their own families on DSP wages. We’ve seen this so many times.

— Roseann Forziano, Calverton

How to be safer as you walk or bike

We’ve read that many people have been killed by motor vehicles while walking or bike riding.

Of note, now, larger vehicles cause more bodily damage and death [“Bigger cars, bigger problems,” Editorial, March 24].

Besides wearing a reflective vest, let’s address the rules of the road when walking or biking:

If you are riding on wheels, you travel with the traffic.

If you are walking, you walk against the traffic so you can see what is coming and get out of the way.

Jaywalking should be discouraged, of course, and crossing over highways on foot or on bike is a bad idea.

If you walk when it’s dark or dusk, stay off the main roads, which are heavily trafficked.

Let’s be safe out there.

— Karen Ferguson, Glen Cove