Michigan bill would require drivers 75 and older to take regular driving tests
Michigan bill would require drivers 75 and older to take regular driving tests
by Remington Hernandez|Statewide Political Reporter
Wed, March 25, 2026 at 7:48 PM
LANSING, Mich. (WWMT) — Many Michiganders have been driving since they were teens, and probably couldn’t imagine not being able to get behind the wheel, but one lawmaker is proposing a measure that could see keys taken away from some older drivers.
Right now, there are no requirements in Michigan law to retake tests for license renewals, provided drivers have a good driving record.
Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D-West Bloomfield), however, has introduced a bill to change that.
Under the bill, every four years, those 75 and older would be required to pass:
- A vision test
- A written test
- A driving test
Once a driver turns 85, those tests must be done annually.
The measure is due in large part to the advocacy of Christopher Thexton.
“It seemed like a kind of a hole in the system that older drivers were allowed to kind of drive unchecked,” he told CBS Detroit.
Thexton lost his wife in October 2024.
She was rear-ended, and when she went to check the damage, she was hit and killed by a 94-year-old driver.
“This was a completely preventable tragedy,” Thexton said.
In 2024, 26% of Michigan drivers were 65 or older, and data shows they are increasingly involved in crashes, representing just over 59,000 or 20% of all crashes.
That’s a 22% increase since 2015, while the number of fatal crashes involving those 65 and older jumped nearly 71% over the same period.
Thexton said he pressed Bayer to act on the issue, and is happy to see the bill.
“I applaud them,” he said. “It’s a good and logical thing to do.”
Illinois is the only state to have a law like Bayer’s bill on the books, but they recently loosened it.
Other states do have shorter renewal intervals for older drivers and Indiana, for example, does also require vision tests.
A request for comment sent to AARP Michigan was not returned, but the organization typically opposes restrictions on elderly drivers.
