Contrary to a commonly held belief, the number of motorist and pedestrian fatalities caused by older adults is far less than drivers in any other age category. Unfortunately, when older drivers are involved in an accident, insurance data indicate that they are more likely to be severely injured or killed than the other people involved in the crash. The death rate per mile driven for drivers aged 65 and older is second only to that of teenagers. This is mostly due to the fact that older adults are more vulnerable to injuries and are more likely to die from those injuries than younger people.
In 2004, while persons above 70 comprise 9% of the US population, nearly 12% of the 42,636 traffic fatalities were from this age group. Of these fatalities, 57% were men and 43% were women. Of the 58,080 total drivers involved in fatal crashes, 7.8% were 70 years or older. This compares to 13.6% in the 15–20 age group.
People often find, as they grow older that some of their senses are not as sharp...
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Suggested Readings
National Center for Statistics and Analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. http://www‐nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd‐30/ncsa/ Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Status Report, September 2001, Special Issue on Older Drivers 36(8). http://www.highwaysafety.org/sr/pdfs/sr3608.pdf
Suggested Resources
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety—Senior Driver Website. http://www.seniordrivers.org
AARP Driver Safety. http://www.aarp.org/families/driver_safety American Medical Association's Physician's Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/olddrive/OlderDriversBook/index.html
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Cassidy, K.A. (2008). Driving Safety. In: Loue, S.J., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_139
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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