At age 100, Creek driver has no problem getting license renewed

Sun Sentinel Link http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cdrive17sep17.story?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dfront

By Robert Nolin and Jerry Libonati Staff Writers Posted September 17 2002

Depending on their perspective, drivers who encounter Israel Haimowitz on the road could give him a hearty thumbs up -- or a wide berth.

Haimowitz just got his driver's license renewed -- at age 100. He's good to go for another six years, but it isn't exactly life in the fast lane.

"I'm a good and safe driver," the Coconut Creek man said. "My car is a Publix car -- I go there and I go home. Or I go to the doctor and I go home." [Publix is a grocery store chain in Florida, fyi.]

The mustachioed Haimowitz, who wears eyeglasses and walks with a cane, said he attracted no notice when he renewed his license just before his Sept. 5 birthday. "They weren't interested in my age," he said. "Just that I have a clean record and paid my fee."

Florida requires no special testing for older drivers, which some legislators say needs to be remedied.

In the 83 years Haimowitz, a retired furniture salesman, has been driving, he has only experienced a few accidents. "Small ones," he said. He has a safe driver certificate and credits his good health and driving ability to 10 hours of sleep a night, followed with two ounces of cognac and five cookies each morning. ROTFLMAO

Haimowitz is "blessed with good health and almost all of his teeth," said his son, Gerald, 71, of Tamarac.

"Age is no barrier," said the elder Haimowitz, who has put 60,000 miles on his horseless carriage, a 1998 Oldsmobile Regency. "If you have the ability to do it, do it."

The centenarian is among about 63,000 licensed drivers in the state who are 90 or older. Officials with the state Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles don't keep numbers on drivers who passed the century mark, said department statistician Selma Sauls.

But Haimowitz also represents a trend: The graying of Florida's motorists. There are an estimated 248,000 licensed drivers over 85 in the state, the fastest growing group of licensed drivers, Sauls said. Eighteen percent of Florida's licensed drivers are 65 or older, which is the highest percentage of any state in the country. "It just keeps growing," Sauls said. "People are living longer."

Still, the American Automobile Association does not advocate any restrictions or special testing for seniors. "They're wiser drivers," AAA spokesman Mantill Williams said from his Washington, D.C. office. "They don't put themselves in dangerous situations as opposed to younger drivers." But the AAA does back limited testing.

State Rep. Ron Greenstein, D-Coconut Creek, was one Florida legislator willing to risk voter wrath and introduce a bill requiring drivers over 85 to undergo testing. His bill failed. Now Greenstein advocates across the board testing for all drivers.

But any efforts to test Florida drivers have traditionally met with tough resistance by older motorists -- a strong voting bloc. And any efforts to restrict licenses for seniors is seen as an attack on their very freedom.

"If you took my driver's license away from me, you'd be taking away my independence," Haimowitz said. "I'd drop dead right then and there."

Robert Nolin can be reached at rnolin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2024.

Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2002