SALEM — Rita Downing, 84, renewed her driver's license on Tuesday.
"I went over to Beverly, took the eye test and got my license for the next five years," she said.
Had she been required to take a driving test — which is what a new bill proposes for all 85-year-olds — she believes she would pass.
But if not?
"It would be devastating to me," she said. But she admits it would probably be for the best.
"If you get refused, you respect who's refusing you, because they might be seeing something you're not," she said.
The same holds true for 90-year-old Cecile Jacques of Salem. Her license expires in 2013. She said she splits her time between driving and taking public transportation.
But if a friend or family member were to tell her she shouldn't be driving, she said she'd take herself off the road.
Several legislators threw their support behind the bill following a series of accidents involving elderly drivers.
However, the proposal has also raised opposition from people who say it's not fair to target a certain age demographic.
Downing agrees with the concept of getting tested to make sure you're still able to drive, but she said setting an age limit is discriminating.
"If someone is in an accident, young or old, they should be tested," she said. "The law should be the same for any age."
Plus, 90-year-olds aren't speeding or drinking and driving.
"If you take everything into consideration, older people are more sensible," she said.
Just because someone is 85, Downing said, doesn't mean they shouldn't be on the road any more than a 17-year-old.
"Sometimes I'm driving, and young people scare the devil out of me," she said. "You stop to let someone cross the street, and they're right on their horn."
While some elderly people may not be in a condition to drive, there are also some 85-year-olds who drive just as well, if not better, than some 40-year-olds, she said.
"You have to take each case as it comes up," she said. "I don't like having a number."
Setting limits
Downing got her license in her early 20s, soon after getting married. She took a trip out to Iowa to meet her in-laws and learned to drive on long miles of dirt roads.
"My father-in-law had a Ford — a stick shift. I still have a stick shift," she said.
Yesterday morning, she drove her blue 1994 Saturn from her house in Swampscott to the Salem Senior Center.
Last weekend, she drove up to New Hampshire for her great-nephew's 16th birthday. She's constantly on the go, and her car gives her freedom.
"It's very difficult to say you can't drive," she said. "It puts you in a prison. You can't go anywhere."
However, she said she's savvy enough to restrict herself.
"We're not kids," she said.
She prefers not to drive in bad weather or at night. The lights bother her, so if she has to, she'll only drive to places she's familiar with.
Jacques doesn't drive at all at night. She goes to certain places — church in Salem on Sundays and then to visit her daughter in Beverly, and out to eat on Fridays. She took the van to the senior center on Tuesday.
She said she would pass a driving test, but if she were to fail, it would become harder, and more expensive, to get to places.
"I would have to give some stuff up," she said.
Downing said it's also up to family members to step in if someone can't see their own problems.
"If I didn't realize what kind of a hazard I was, I would say to my children, report me to the registry and have them take my license away," she said.
But to have a mandatory driving test at 85 sort of makes the issue black and white — pass or fail.
"The word 'test' kind of scares people," she said. If you don't perform a perfect three-point turn, or forget to adjust your mirror, you lose your right to drive.
And, she said, you lose your freedom.
Staff writer Cate Lecuyer can be reached at clecuyer@salemnews.com.
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