SUNY Downstate CarFit Event to Help Seniors Enhance Driving Safety, April 10
Apr 5, 2011
SUNY Downstate Medical Center will hold a CarFit Event for seniors Sunday, April 10, 2011. CarFit is an educational program that offers older adults the opportunity to check how well their personal vehicles “fit” them. It also provides information on community-specific resources that could enhance their safety as drivers and increase their mobility.
Older drivers can improve their safety by ensuring their cars are properly adjusted for them. This includes making sure they are positioned the proper distance from the airbag, have eliminated potential blind spots using adapted mirror positions, and can fully reach and depress the brake pedal. The CarFit program says, “A proper fit in one’s car can greatly increase not only the driver’s safety but also the safety of others.”
The CarFit event will take place between 11 am and 3 pm at the SUNY Downstate parking lot at 324 Winthrop Street, between Nostrand and New York Avenues, Brooklyn, New York 11225. Trained professionals and faculty and student volunteers from the Occupational Therapy Department at Downstate’s School of Health Professions will work with each participant to ensure they fit their vehicle properly for maximum comfort and safety. A CarFit check takes approximately 20 minutes.
An appointment must be made in advance. For more information call 718-826-5046 or email deena.berkowitz@downstate.edu.
CarFit is an educational program created by the American Society on the Aging and developed in collaboration with AAA, AARP, and the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA).
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About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.