A bill would set tougher standards for older drivers.

Rep. Ric Killian, a Charlotte Republican, filed a bill to require more frequent drivers license renewals for people 65 and older and mandate road tests for people older than 85.

He cited an academic study that shows the oldest drivers have more crashes per miles traveled than anyone except younger teen drivers.

The bill would require drivers older than 75 renew their licenses every three years instead of every five.

"There's clearly a connection between a person's age and their ability to operate a motor vehicle," he said.

The state office of AARP is ramping up opposition to the bill, asking its 66,000 active state members to call legislators about it. (N&O) 

Gov.-elect Bev Perdue's incoming administration held the first of its public meetings to get input on important issues by focusing on a topic close to Perdue's heart.

About 40 advocates and state regulators met Wednesday in Cary to discuss how North Carolina can do a better job providing assistance to elderly residents, the Associated Press reports.

The group is one of 14 meeting over the next week on topics ranging from transportation to mental health. The groups will make recommendations to the governor-elect by early December.

Perdue did not attend the meeting in Cary. She used to work as a geriatric consultant and services director at a New Bern hospital.

The number of people age 65 or older in North Carolina in 2030 will be more than double the total in 2000.

Beverly Perdue's freshman initiatives focused on health care.

As a first-term representative in the state legislature, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate obtained funding for senior citizens' nutrition and education programs, a semiautomated defibrillator for Pamlico County’s rescue squad and Craven County’s board on aging.

In all, she sponsored 33 bills in the 1987-88 session of the state House of Representatives, of which 26 were adopted.

She secured more than $3,000 for three education initiatives, a Lenoir County’s Boys and Girls Club, a drug and alcohol abuse education program and a service pairing children of single-parent families with adult mentors.

Perdue also helped decorate Craven County ambulances. She co-sponsored a successful bill to add the word “Craven” to the side of county ambulances.