Gov. Nathan Deal gets advice on car safety Friday from CarFit Coordinator Gary Towns at Lakewood Baptist Church as the group offered older adults the opportunity to check how well their personal vehicles "fit" them. SCOTT ROGERS/The Times

September is Healthy Aging Month, an annual observance designed to focus national attention on the positive aspects of growing older.  The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) works year round to ensure that Georgia's seniors are healthy and safe. One way of doing so is through the Older Driver Safety Program, funded through the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS).

The Older Driver Safety Program's goal is to maintain the mobility of older adults while keeping them safe. The program primarily focuses on reducing the number of injuries and fatalities experienced by older drivers, and where possible, enhancing mobility options for older adults.  

Maintaining a sense of independence is very important to many of Georgia's seniors. The Older Driver Safety Program's CarFit program works to ensure that older adults in Georgia stay safe in automobiles while still maintaining that sense of independence.  The program works to educate drivers, especially seniors on how to fit correctly and safely in their car while driving.  

CarFit is a national program developed through collaboration among AAA, the American Society on Aging, AARP and the American Occupational Therapy Association. The purpose of the program is not to determine an individual's ability to drive safely. Instead, it is a free educational program offered that trains individuals to be certified CarFit Technicians and/or Event Coordinators.  Once certified, CarFit events are voluntarily hosted at churches, senior centers, and grocery store parking lots.  

From positioning the seat to the angle of the steering wheel and mirrors to properly fitting a seatbelt, seniors go through a checklist of items at the events to figure out the proper way to fit into the driver's seat.

Sandra Deal waves to a friend Friday while learning about driver safety from Jennifer Curry of the Georgia Department of Public Health at Lakewood Baptist Church. CarFit helps educate older adults how to check how well their personal vehicles "fit" them. SCOTT ROGERS/The Times

"That's really what this is all about," said Gov. Nathan Deal at a CarFit event he attended this summer. "They have grown older and they haven't adjusted to the fact that they can't always see and react the way they used to...and sometimes it has a lot to do with the way they're fitted in their vehicles."

Older drivers are often the safest drivers in that they are more likely to wear their seatbelts, and less likely to speed or drink and drive. However, older drivers are more likely to be killed or seriously injured when a crash does occur due to the greater fragility of their aging bodies. According to GOHS, older drivers in 2010 made up 31 percent of the people involved in Georgia traffic crashed and 16 percent of all people killed.

The older driver safety program will co-host a CarFit event with the Gwinnett County police department at the Lawrenceville Senior Center on Sep. 18.

For more information on the Older Driver Safety Program or details about the Sep. 18 CarFit event, contact Jennifer Curry at jlcurry@dhr.state.ga.us. For information on the CarFit program, visit the Georgia Traffic Injury Prevention Institute's web site http://extension.caes.uga.edu/gtipi/templates/carfit.htm

-Story by Kimberly Stringer, DPH Communications