When are you too old to drive?

When an 87-year-old Windsor woman sped through a Walmart parking lot last week — her foot firmly on the gas and circling in reverse — it rekindled an old debate: At what age should you hand over the keys?

The driver of the SUV slammed into five parked cars, causing an estimated $50,000 worth of damage.

This isn’t the first time advancing age has been considered a possible factor in an accident, and it won’t be the last. An investigative series by the Toronto Star earlier this year reported that the number of Ontario drivers with dementia will double by 2028. That means there could be 100,000 cognitively impaired people on the road in just 15 years.

Other seniors will be compromised by loss of motor skills and poor night vision.

In February, Transportation Minister Bob Chiarelli said dealing with those issues was a “top priority” and suggested tough new rules would be coming by the end of the year. To date, no such regulations have been put in place, and with the legislature prorogued until mid-2013, it isn’t going to happen any time soon.

But the government must make those changes, starting with the way it assesses drivers once they reach the age of 80. The current standard to renew a licence is a vision test, a written multiple choice test and a 90-minute group education session every two years.

Counsellors review the driving record, assess how well participants perform during the group session, then decide whether a road test is re- quired. The problem? Multiple choice increases the odds of getting it right, whether you know the answer or not. And if you do fail, you can pay the fee and write the test again and again.

The biggest flaw is that the senior driver’s licence renewal program doesn’t automatically evaluate critical things such as judgment, attention span, concentration level and reflexes.

That’s why it should be mandatory for every driver over the age of 80 to either take a road test or enrol in the DRIVEABLE program, which uses a computer screen to simulate the skills needed to be safe on the road.

DRIVEABLE is a convenient test that should be used more, and it should be partially covered by OHIP, because the $400 cost makes it prohibitive for many seniors.

Ontario should also join most other jurisdictions in North America and introduce what’s called “degraduated licences.” That would put restrictions on elderly drivers who have trouble seeing in the dark, or who might be competent on city streets but out of their element on the highway.

And finally, physicians, family and friends have to be more diligent about reporting those they feel shouldn’t be behind the wheel. Doctors, especially, need better guidelines, and there should be sanctions for physicians who fail to notify the government that their patients have declining skills that make driving dangerous.

It’s not a comfortable thing to do. Taking away someone’s independence never is.

But it’s better to anger an atrisk elderly driver than to let that driver put lives at risk.

Ontario’s MPPs have yet to reconcile to the fact our aging population will create a whole new set of problems on our roads, and that’s irresponsible.