Are older drivers actually at higher risk of involvement in collisions resulting in deaths or non-fatal injuries among their passengers and other road users?

Abstract

Objectives: With more older drivers on the road, public concern has been expressed about their impact on traffic safety. This study revisited the question of driver age in relation to the risks of older drivers and others sharing the road with them, including pedestrians, passengers in the same vehicle, and occupants of other vehicles. Methods: Using United States federal data on fatal and non-fatal crashes, injury rates per driver were calculated for different types of road users. In addition, using data supplied by nine insurers, insurance claims per insured vehicle year were examined by driver age. The reference drivers were aged 30-59. Results: For fatal crashes, older drivers' major impact on road users other than themselves was an increase in death rates among their passengers, who also tended to be elderly and thus more vulnerable to injuries (rate ratio (RR) for drivers aged 75+ 2.52; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.39 to 2.66). For non-fatal crashes, drivers aged 75+ had a RR of 1.10 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.24) for involvement in collisions resulting in injuries to other passenger vehicles' occupants compared with 30-59 year old drivers. The oldest drivers (aged 85+) had significant increases in insurance claims for injuries to other road users in crashes in which they were deemed at fault (RR 1.8; 95% CI 1.71 to 1.89). Conclusions: These findings suggest that the oldest drivers, a group with low average annual mileage, do pose some increased risks to occupants of other vehicles, and pose the most serious risks to themselves and their passengers.

Older drivers’ opinions of criteria that inform the cars they buy: A focus group study

“…Functional declines associated with medical conditions, rather than age alone, have been attributed to higher crash rates (Dobbs, 2008). Relative to younger drivers, older drivers tend to cause more multi-vehicle crashes and, because they are frailer, the severity of their injuries and fatality rates are disproportionately high (Bédard et al, 2002;Braver and Trempel, 2004;Cook et al, 2000;Evans, 2001;Li et al, 2003;Lyman et al, 2002). Unfortunately, evidence suggests that awareness of impairments does not necessarily result in appropriate or sufficient self-regulation of driving habits (Baldock et al, 2006;Banister and Bowling, 2004), necessitating in other interventions.…”

Differences in Long-term Medical Consequences Depending on Impact Direction Involving Passenger Cars

“…Gustafsson et al (2015) showed that both age and gender affect the risk of PMI following car crashes. However, the correlation of older age and impairment risk was not as clear as has been found for fatality risk in a car crash (Augenstein et al 2005;Bédard et al 2002;Braver and Trempel 2004).…”

The Canadian Safe Driving Study—Phase I pilot: Examining potential logistical barriers to the full cohort study

“…Older drivers, on the other hand, are experienced and less likely to engage in unsafe driving behaviours (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Surprisingly, older drivers have one of the highest rates of collision per mile driven (Braver and Trempel, 2004;Daigneault et al, 2002b;Di Stefano and Macdonald, 2003). One explanation for increased collision risk in this age group is a characterized low mileage bias (Gallo et al, 1999;Kostyniuk et al, 2000).…”