Development of a curriculum and roadside screening tool for Law enforcement identification of medical impairment in aging drivers
DOI: 10.1186/s40621-016-0078-3
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Summary
This study addresses the growing public safety challenge of medically impaired older drivers, a demographic projected to comprise one in five drivers by 2030. Older adults are at higher risk for cognitive, visual, and psychomotor impairments that compromise driving safety, yet law enforcement officers often lack the training to identify these conditions or the protocols to report them effectively. Prior to this intervention, officers frequently failed to report medically impaired drivers to licensing authorities until after a crash occurred, partly due to leniency, lack of specific training, and unclear reporting procedures. The research aimed to develop and evaluate a certified training curriculum and a practical roadside screening tool to enhance law enforcement’s ability to identify and manage these drivers. The researchers, in partnership with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and the University of California, San Diego, developed a two-hour training curriculum titled “Older Driver Safety: Law Enforcement’s Role.” The curriculum was designed based on expert interviews and focus groups with law enforcement personnel, incorporating mixed-media presentations, case scenarios, and guidance on state-specific reporting laws. To complement the training, the team created the Driver Orientation Screen for Cognitive Impairment (DOSCI), a brief, pocket-sized screening tool assessing orientation to person, place, and time. The DOSCI was validated using a sample of 41 patients with dementia and 27 cognitively intact controls from an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. The study analyzed data from 103 training sessions involving 2,018 officers, utilizing pre- and post-training questionnaires and long-term follow-up interviews conducted 24 months after training. The validation study demonstrated that the DOSCI effectively distinguished between impaired and non-impaired individuals. Patients with dementia made a mean of 2.36 errors on the nine-item screen, compared to only 0.22 errors for cognitively normal controls (p < .0001). The training significantly improved officer behavior and attitudes. At baseline, only 26% of officers had reported a driver to the Department of Motor Vehicles in the previous six months. Post-training, 96% stated they were likely to use standard reporting forms, and 90% reported they were likely to use the DOSCI tool. Officers reported increased confidence in identifying medical impairment and a better understanding of community resources. In the two-year follow-up, 90% of interviewed officers reported routinely carrying the reporting form in their vehicles, and 67% still possessed the DOSCI card. The study concludes that the certified training and DOSCI tool were well-received and effective in changing officer knowledge, attitudes, and intentions regarding the identification of medically impaired drivers. The inclusion of the Department of Motor Vehicles in the curriculum clarified reporting processes, which was critical for officer adoption. The training received accreditation from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, facilitating its integration into standard in-service training. The findings suggest that targeted, practical training and screening tools can overcome barriers to reporting, potentially reducing crashes involving medically impaired older drivers. The authors note that future research is needed to capture data on the outcomes of drivers reported by trained officers.
Key finding
The implementation of a specialized training curriculum and roadside screening tool significantly increased law enforcement officers' confidence and intention to identify and report medically impaired older drivers.
Methodology
mixed_methods
Sample size: 2018
Provenance
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-28 |
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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
- older driver retraining
- fitness to drive assessment
- licensing policy
- cognitive impairment
- mci dementia driving
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
- Methodological Resource: validation psychometrics