The death of a pedestrian Sunday night in Kailua in an accident involving an 87-year-old driver once again has people like Ted White calling for greater driving restrictions for the elderly.

"If we have a minimum driving age, it seems we should have a maximum driving age," said White, a 49-year-old retired attorney from Makakilo. "Above a certain age, you shouldn't be able to drive."

Sunday's accident killed 27-year-old Brandon Anderson of Hilo at the intersection of Kailua Road and Uluoa Street.

Today, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety will make licensing recommendations, which could involve elderly drivers, said Dennis Kamimura, Honolulu's licensing administrator.

Any recommendations would have to be adopted by individual state legislatures before they would take effect, Kamimura said.

Hawai'i already requires drivers 72 and older to get their licenses renewed every two years — compared to a new, longer term of every eight years for drivers age 24 to 72, effective this November.

In 2005, the state Legislature considered requiring drivers 75 and older to pass a road test every time they got their licenses renewed. Last year, legislators also considered a bill that would have given drivers 55 or older cheaper insurance rates.

Neither proposal became law and there is no upcoming legislation specifically aimed at elderly drivers, according to the state Department of Transportation.

"We can't legislate awareness," said state Sen. J. Kalani English, D-6th (Maui, Moloka'i, Lana'i), who is chairman of the Senate's transportation and international affairs committee. "We can't legislate conscientiousness. Many have tried."

VIEWS OF ELDERLY VARY

The issue of unsafe elderly drivers has to be looked at as just one part of an increasingly dense urban landscape involving other factors such as pedestrian safety and mass transit, English said.

Still, he said, tragic accidents involving elderly drivers touch people in a special way.

"It's part of the compassion we have in Hawai'i," English said. "We still have this ethic of taking care of our elders. They're still the titular heads of our families."

Some elderly drivers believe that Hawai'i needs some sort of extra requirements for people like them, such as doctors' approvals, hearing tests or road tests.

Betty Hasegawa's son believes she's too old to be driving at the age of 88 — and she agrees.

"Too old is no good," she said. "I'm just a passenger now. Of course I miss driving."

Masaki Yokoe, 66, slid his golf bag into the passenger seat of his silver 2007 Porsche Cayman outside the Ala Wai Golf Course and said he worries about unsafe elderly drivers navigating the roads that he travels.

"People over 70 should be tested," Yokoe said. "I don't know all the details. But there should be some sort of extra test."

Lee Kee, 95, has been driving for 80 years, ever since her dad taught her how to motor around Kane'ohe when she was 15.

"Now," she said, "my family doesn't want me driving anymore. I'm old, that's why."

But Kee hasn't given up driving. Instead, she has merely cut back on how much she drives her 2003 Toyota sedan.

"If I want to go to church, I go," she said. "I haven't had any accidents."

Only Illinois and New Hampshire require older drivers to take road tests, according to a 2007 study by the Rand Corporation.

The same study found that drivers 65 and older are only one-third as likely to cause accidents, compared to drivers 18 to 25 years old.

The older drivers also were not much more likely to cause accidents than drivers 26 to 64 years old, according to the study.

Based on 2001 data, the study found that people 65 and older totalled 15 percent of all licensed drivers but were responsible for only 7 percent of all U.S. accidents.

By comparison, drivers 18 to 25 accounted for 13 percent of all licensed drivers but caused 43 percent of all accidents.

"We think people of all ages should face stringent licensing requirements," said Bruce Bottorff, associate state director of AARP in Hawai'i. "But we want to defend the ability of folks as they get older to maintain their independence and mobility. It would be unfair to place some arbitrary age for testing."

MEDICAL HISTORY FORM

In Hawai'i, drivers only need to prove they can see better than 20/50 and pass a peripheral vision test, Kamimura said.

"There are some people that reach age 55 and 60 that should not be driving because of the degradation of their health," Kamimura said. "But I don't think we can use age as a reason to tell someone to take a road test. And, currently, there is nothing in the statutes that will allow us to just arbitrarily cancel a person's license."

However, counties can require drivers of any age to complete a medical history form if a concerned family member or physician complains in writing about the driver to a particular county's licensing agency, Kamimura said.

The driver has 90 days to complete the form, which will then be reviewed by the Governor's Medical Advisory Board.

After 90 days, the driver's license will be suspended until the board rules, Kamimura said.

But Kuke Lee, 82, believes elderly drivers need to realize their limits long before any government agencies intervene.

"Our reflexes slow down after a certain age," Lee said, as he stepped out of his 1999 Ford Taurus. "And the eyesight's not as good. Yeah, there should be extra rules."