Updated Driver Safety Program Sharpens Skills in Just Four Hours

In just a few short decades, almost everything about driving has changed.

Cars and trucks are bigger, faster and more powerful. Streets and highways are more congested. Traffic laws and signs have changed. Even such advances as antilock brakes, front-wheel drive and airbags require different driver responses than earlier technologies.

Those realities can be a challenge for many older drivers, especially as they encounter age-related changes in vision, hearing and response times. And with more and more older drivers on the road, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, it’s more important than ever that motorists stay on top of their driving game.

Fortunately, AARP’s Driver Safety Program can help drivers keep pace with the times.

Better yet, the course now comes in a convenient four-hour version that still packs all the punch of the longer, eight-hour course.

“We’re not cutting anything out except the repetition,” said Mark Coratti, Indiana coordinator for the Driver Safety Program. “It’s much more flexible and feasible for students and the host sites.”

Course schedules are available across Indiana by calling 1-888-227-7669 or by visiting www.aarp.org/drive. Those resources can also help you schedule a course at your civic club, senior living facility or place of worship.

All courses are taught by trained AARP volunteers in group settings. The course covers a wide range of topics, including current traffic laws, the safest ways to change lanes and turn at intersections, how to maintain proper following distance, and proper use of safety restraints, air bags and antilock brakes.

The Driver Safety Program also teaches about the effects of medication on driving and how to adjust to common, age-related physical changes.

Mobility is crucial to modern life. But so is safety. AARP’s new four-hour Driver Safety Program helps older drivers have the best of both worlds.