Ever had a favorite jacket or a pair of slacks that needed to be adjusted for a better fit? Cars can be that way, too, but it’s not something we think about much.

AARP of Hawaii wants to help keep older drivers safe with Car-Fit, a program that helps seniors adjust their vehicles to ensure maximum comfort, protection and safety.

During free Car-Fit sessions, drivers can bring in their autos, and a team of volunteers, led by an occupational therapist, will help them run through a checklist of standard safety measures, such as proper mirror angles and seat position, said Bruce Bottorf, a spokesman for AARP of Hawaii.

"Most of us just jump into our car, especially when we’re younger. We just put in the key in the ignition, and off we go," he said. "But as we get older, it becomes increasingly important to pay attention to these little details."

Statistically, older drivers have been shown to follow safe driving habits, such as wearing seat belts and obeying traffic laws, Bottorf said. But when they do get into a crash, they are more likely to be injured or killed, he said.

"They’re more fragile; they’re aging bodies don’t heal as quickly," he said.

The Car-Fit program attempts to address this by making sure a vehicle’s safety features will function properly. For example, some older drivers, in an attempt to see more out of the windshield, scrunch up close to the steering wheel as if they are "embracing" it, Bottorf said. But a driver should be at least 12 inches away from the steering wheel in case a collision triggers airbag deployment, he said.

A 2005 study by the National Institute on Aging found that almost half of the older drivers killed in vehicle wrecks died of chest injuries.

Although researchers did not look at the victims’ body positions in the fatal crashes, the data suggest that drivers should be aware of how close they sit to the wheel.

The study also found that senior drivers are the second most likely group, behind young adults, to die in a car crash.

Bottorf said seniors often mistakenly set the head rest too low, as if it were a "neck rest." In fact, it should support the back of the head to prevent or lessen the impact of whiplash.

Al Eugenio, an AARP program manager, said some seniors who drove older cars for many years are unaware of some of the features available on newer cars. He said he’s seen some elderly drivers sitting on telephone books because they didn’t know they could adjust the height of their car seat with the push of a button.

Eugenio added that while the Car-Fit program is targeted at older drivers, drivers of any age can bring in their vehicles to get checked out.

Bottorf said about 1 in 5 drivers in Hawaii is age 60 or older, a number that will increase as the state’s population ages. He said drivers who have participated in previous Car-Fit programs have usually found "one or two little things that make them more comfortable and thus makes them more confident and able to deal with the physical demands of driving, especially if they have arthritis or have difficulty turning their neck."