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Opportunities Inc. offering driver safety course |
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Friday, October 31 2008 |
By Brooke Huff
Reporter
The nation’s first and largest classroom refresher course for motorists age 50 and older is coming to Borger.
Sponsored by Opportunities Inc., 930 Illinois St., and taught by AARP-trained volunteer Carolyn Miller, the Driver Safety Program is designed to help senior motorists stay safe while driving, and learn how to avoid driving hazards. The two-day course is scheduled for November 13 and 14, 2008, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Since its inception in 1979, AARP has been offering its classroom and online driver safety courses to millions of senior citizens throughout the country to help them better protect their safety on the roads. According to aarp.org, the training course is designed to help seniors in several areas of driving, including tuning up their skills and updating their knowledge of the rules of the road, learning about normal, age-related physical changes and how to adjust their driving to allow for those changes, and reducing their driving violations, crashes, and essentially their chances for injuries. By taking the driver safety course, participants can be eligible for insurance discounts, most auto insurance companies provide multiyear discounts to AARP members, and receive discounts on AARP Motoring Plan from GE Motor Club.
Upon arriving for the course, participants can expect to learn the current rules of the road, how to operate a vehicle more safely in today’s increasingly challenging driving environment, and some adjustments to common age-related changes in vision, hearing and reaction time. According to aarp.org, throughout the duration of the course, Miller will teach seniors skills such as how to maintain proper following distances at all times, the safest way to change lanes and make turns at intersections, the effects of medications on driving, how to minimize the effect of dangerous blind spots, the importance of eliminating distractions such as eating, smoking, and cell phone use, proper use of safety belts, air bags, and antilock brakes, how to maintain physical flexibility, and ways to monitor their own, as well as others’ driving skills and capabilities. After completion of the course, seniors should have a greater appreciation of driving challenges and how to avoid potential collisions that could cause injuries to themselves and others.
AARP membership is not required in order to participate, but there is a $10 fee to help cover course materials.
To this day, there are more than 9 million graduates of the AARP Driver Safety Program, which remains one of AARP’s most visible community service programs. It is also a key element of the organization’s effort to support “livable communities,” striving to ensure, enhance, and sustain mobility and housing options to enable people age 50 and older to remain in their homes.
For more information about the local Driver Safety Program, call Miller at 806-274-2802, or log on to www.aarp.org/drive.
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Last Updated ( Monday, November 03 2008 )
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