Does Florida have an age limit for driving? What the law says about taking the wheel

Posting celebratory photos on social media of teens clutching their first driver’s license after passing the test is a common rite of passage. They also signify that states set age requirements on a person’s permission to drive.

But what about the other side of life? Does Florida have an age limit for driving?

The question comes up from time to time when tragic accidents happen involving senior citizens.

The answer is: No.

Florida doesn’t place a specific age cap on driving privileges.

But there are rules related to age that have evolved over time. The debate about when it’s time to give up the car keys has been stirred once again by recent tragedies.

On Monday, a 92-year-old woman aimed to park her Nissan, but instead sailed onto a sidewalk at the front of a Miami Navarro Pharmacy at Southwest 32nd Avenue and 22nd Street. She hit a 7-year-old girl who was walking into the store with her mother, who was also injured.

The driver told police her brakes weren’t working. Miami police spokesman Michael Vega countered that video from the scene showed the Nissan’s brake lights never illuminated. She accidentally pressed down on the accelerator — mistaking it for the brakes, Vega said.

“As we get older, our senses get different, and maybe we need to say, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be driving ’ and maybe look at another alternative to driving,’” Vega told Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami.

Days later, the girl was fighting for her life with head injuries at Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson hospital. Her father, Joany Figueredo, told WPLG Local 10 in Spanish that “families should use this tragedy to re-evaluate whether their elderly loved ones should be behind the wheel .”

A personal decision

The decision on when to give up driving is a personal matter made by an elder, and in some cases at the urging of loved ones or concerned outsiders. It’s seldom an easy decision.

The state doesn’t have an upper age limit for driving. Though an advisory council at the Florida Senate level led by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles met in Tallahassee in 2007 to study the effects of aging on driving ability, a law listing an exact age limit was never enacted.

In 2004, Florida mandated that drivers 80 or older needed to pass a vision test and file a vision examination report when renewing a license. You pass and your license can be renewed, unless a doctor notes otherwise.

In 2007, former Miami Herald columnist Claire Mitchell, then 86, wrote about the need for a law regulating age or condition of elderly drivers that goes beyond the requirement of a vision test. In her column, The Third Third, she wrote, “Young people are required to be tested before they can get a permit to drive, but the aged are not.”

She concluded, “It is not something that should be left to the individual. Someone in Tallahassee should be protecting us from ourselves. Why has that not been done?”

Though the 2004 vision requirement law remains intact without an exact age limitation, there are stipulations senior drivers must adhere to that their younger counterparts generally don’t have to ponder.

What does the law say about seniors driving?

According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, a Florida Class E driver’s license — a standard driver’s license for non-commercial vehicles — must be renewed every eight years for those who are 79 years old and younger.

But at age 80, driver’s licenses must be renewed every six years .

Customers who are 80 or older and are not eligible to renew their driver’s license online must pass a vision test, the state says. The test can be taken at a Florida driver’s license service center. There is not a separate charge.

Customers can also ask their Florida-licensed medical doctor, osteopathic physician or an optometrist to administer a vision test. Once a customer passes the vision test, the driver or a doctor must submit a Mature Driver Vision Test form that is available from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

If the vision test reveals medical conditions that result in a referral to an eye specialist, such as a Florida-licensed ophthalmologist or an optometrist, a customer will need to submit a completed Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Report of Eye Exam form.

On that form a physician can sign off on patients being safe to drive if they pass the visual test. But eye examiners can also sign the form recommending that a license be denied and can state why. The medical professional can also OK the patient to drive but only under certain specifications such as daytime only or only after passing a driving test or with special equipment on the car.

How to request an unsafe driver investigation in Florida

Sometimes the problem may go beyond visual and you may have to have a talk with your family member, friend or doctor. Sometimes you may have to reach out to the state.

After a 90-year-old crashed into a bank in Manatee County when he hit the accelerator rather than brake while trying to park in 2020, ABC7 viewers in Bradenton started the chorus of questions again: “Should there be age restrictions on driving?”

Florida AARP communications manager Dave Bruns told the station that his organization was concerned about the issue as the organization noted that there were 825,000 drivers 80 or older and 112,000 drivers 90 or older registered in Florida.

“But we also think it’s unfair to say that it’s age alone that is an indicator of why you should be or not be behind a wheel,” he said.

“It’s not so much age. It’s really about health conditions,” Bruns said.

Florida had the largest number of older drivers involved in fatal crashes at 767 compared to other states, according to a 2021 U.S. Department of Transportation report.

In 2020, about 7,500 adults 70 and older nationwide were killed in traffic crashes, and almost 200,000 were treated in the ER for crash injuries, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These figures translated to 20 older adults killed and almost 540 injured in crashes daily.

Sometimes age-related impairments are a factor and the driver may not be willing to give up their independence or recognize the time may have come.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles “will accept information from any doctor, person, or agency representative who knows of a physical or mental condition that may affect an individual’s ability to drive safely,” according to Nolo, a nationwide firm that answers legal questions. These reports can be filed to the state by completing the department’s Medical Referral form .

Reports are kept confidential, but you must include a name, address and telephone number. Department investigators may interview family members, neighbors or the driver’s doctor, and may also require medical tests or written or road retests.