State Rep. Sheldon Wasserman, D-Milwaukee, announced a bill last week that would deal exclusively with the danger of unqualified elderly drivers.

Senior citizens will be required to have vision and general knowledge tested more frequently as they age older than 75 if lawmakers pass the new legislation.

Under the bill, senior citizens between 75 and 84 years old would be required to either pass a vision test or provide a copy of a doctor’s exam every three years. In addition to a vision test, seniors older then the age of 85 must complete a knowledge test every two years. Failure to comply will result in termination of their license, according to Wasserman’s testimony.

Wisconsin, in conjunction with several other states, has a current law requiring drivers’ licenses to be renewed every eight years.

“We just feel that going eight years, even for just vision testing, is way too long — especially after 75 years of age,” said State Rep. J. A. Hines, R-Oxford, co-author of the bill.

Criticism of the bill includes the inability of senior citizens in rural areas to access necessary items, as well as the distance traveled to the nearest Department of Motor Vehicles. These citizens are still going to have to travel to the DMV — it is just a matter of when, Hines said.

“The senior citizens are the least privileged of any of our classes by far. We have been lowering Medicaid, Medicare, and now they are trying to make it more difficult to get a driver’s license — I think they should target someone else,” said Ed Thompson, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin.

Of the numerous more pressing concerns legislators should be dealing with, Thompson cites the use of cell phones as more important and trouble causing — especially among teenagers — than senior citizens’ vision impairment.

The elderly residents of Wisconsin are reported to have been involved in more collisions per miles driven than nearly ever other category, save teenagers. Forty-seven percent of people older than the age of 85 suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, Wasserman said.

The correlation for fatality of senior citizens involved in accidents is much higher than that of younger people, Hines said.

Two studies are being conducted in regard to the bill, Wasserman said. One will focus on the effect this would have on the elderly and the number of people it will affect. The other study focuses on how to improve road and transportation safety, Wasserman said.

Twenty-two other states have already passed legislation specifically reducing the number of years between license renewals for the elderly, Wasserman said.

The proposed bill has the support of the American Association of Retired Persons, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, the Wisconsin Medical Society and the Alzheimer’s Chapter Network of Wisconsin. Democratic and Republican legislators, along with the Department of Transportation, worked in conjunction with these groups to produce this bill.

“This is very important legislation,” Wasserman said. “It’s something to make roads and highways much safer.”

If everything goes smoothly, the legislation should go into effect by early next year, Wasserman said.