Older people need to be aware of risks while driving along with everyone else, police sergeant Stephen Burgerhout says.
‘‘It’s no use having the moral high ground in a crash, if you’re in hospital or your car’s in the shop.
‘‘It’s defensive driving,’’ he said. Burgerhout was a speaker at the popular Staying Safe Driving Course for seniors last week in Ashburton.
It is run by Age Concern Canterbury but held at the Ashburton office.
Forty one people attended, some for the first time and others were repeat attendees wanting to sit the refresher course.
Age Concern Canterbury staying safe facilitator Charlie Hudson said the organisation ran two or three a year and they were very popular.
‘‘The people that come on these courses are usually pretty proactive…they’re not often the ones we’re worried about,’’ she said.
‘‘But being informed means that you can take some control back and make that choice if you feel you need too.’’ Hudson said the course was broken down and allowed attendees to think about their own driving.
‘‘What can I do? What’s my controllables with my skills? My vulnerabilities, my assessment and then we look at what can we implement to basically mitigate against some of those vulnerabilities,’’ she said.
She said having a police officer from the district who could be specific about roads in the area has proved popular with attendees, she said.
Burgerhout, a 25-year veteran of the police’s Aoraki highway patrol, is now a risk and assessment officer based in Ashburton.
‘‘I think its twice as long as a hospital and recovery from age 50 to 80,’’ he said.
‘‘So that’s what we’re doing here, is we’re keeping people safe.’’ Hudson said attendees appreciated having local police speak. ‘‘Because only other times they’re going to see you is when something’s gone wrong,’’ she told Burgerhout.
She said sometimes people have to make the hard call as to whether or not they should still be driving. But at the end of the day it was about keeping people on the road safely.
‘‘Doctors aren’t looking to fail you, they’re not looking to take licences away unless they actually need to. So that’s quite key.’’ There were also some who felt drivers were more aggressive now.
‘‘So that’s what we’re trying to address within these courses, it is really that sense of confidence.
‘‘You know where you’re supposed to be. There are no surprises out there and you’re factoring in enough buffer around you to make up for slower reaction times.’’
