Drive Wise seminar coming to the Bay

Drive Wise
News Release

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Toronto – The Ontario Provincial Police, The McLennan Group, Lombard Canada and CARP proudly present Drive Wise - a free driver refresher seminar for mature motorists – coming to Alzheimer Society of North Bay & District, North Bay Public Library, 271 Worthington Street East, North Bay on Tuesday April 7, 2009 at 7:00 PM. Please contact Kathy Gaudaur at 705-495-4342 [email protected] for more details.

“The philosophical core of Drive Wise encourages all motorists to take a preventative, go-slow and common sense approach to driving. Drive Wise gives concrete advice on how to avoid the most likely scenarios causing collisions,” says Drive Wise director of logistics and communications James Pasternak.

Drive Wise is a free refresher course that helps seniors preserve their right to drive.

“OPP officers are confident that seniors attending Drive Wise will leave with valuable tips and tools,” said recently retired Sgt. Bob Paterson of the OPP’s Caledon detachment.

“If all of us, regardless of age, become better informed, then we will be better drivers. If you’re a more comfortable and better driver, it will mean a lot less anxiety and I think lives will be saved.”

Drive Wise is an OPP-delivered seminar that introduces a shopping basket of succinct tips, suggestions and driving strategies, which are, in fact, preventive measures against the most likely causes of collisions and mishaps faced by older Canadians on the road. Senior drivers are the fastest-growing age cluster on today’s roads.
Drive Wise is sponsored, in part, by CARP, Canada’s Association for the Fifty-Plus. Other partners include The McLennan Group, Ontario & Toronto Automobile Dealers Associations, the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, the Ontario Seniors Secretariat and Obus Forme.

For example, Transport Canada found in 1996 that three-quarters of fatalities involving drivers age 65 and over occurred on highways and rural routes, where speed limits exceed 60 kilometres an hour. Drive Wise provides specific driving strategies to reduce the risk of collisions when travelling on these roads.

“The Drive Wise presentation includes an instructional Power Point presentation as well as handouts that reinforce and sustain targetted safe driving strategies,” says James Pasternak.

All drivers are encouraged to visit the Drive Wise Road Safety Knowledge Centre at www.drivewise.ca.

And although seniors are not involved in any more collisions than other age groups on a per capita basis, they are at greater risk of serious injury or death once involved in a traffic mishap.

“There isn’t any question. There is what is known as the frailty factor, which applies to older drivers. Put starkly, they are more likely to be killed in a collision. So when a collision is a fatality, it’s more likely the fatality is a senior driver, even though it may not even be their fault,” says Leo Tasca, team leader of special projects in Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation.

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