Fact: Safety for older drivers is a public health issue.
Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of injury-related deaths among 65- to 74-year olds and are the second leading cause (after falls) among 75- to 84-year olds.
4 Compared with other drivers, older drivers have a higher fatality rate per mile driven than any other age group except drivers under the age of 25. On the basis of estimated annual travel, the fatality rate for drivers 85 and older is 9 times higher than the rate for drivers 25 to 69 years old.
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There are two reasons for this excess in fatalities. First, drivers 75 years and older are involved in significantly more motor vehicle crashes per mile driven than middle-aged drivers. Second, older drivers are considerably more fragile. Fragility begins to increase at ages 60 to 64 and increases steadily with advancing age.
5 By age 80, male and female drivers are 4 and 3.1 times more likely, respectively, than 20-year olds to die as a result of a motor vehicle crash.
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In the year 2000, 37,409 Americans died in motor vehicle crashes.
7 Of this number, 6,643 were people aged 65 years and older. This population represented 13% of the total US population but accounted for 18% of all traffic fatalities.
8 As the older population in this country continues to grow, drivers alone aged 65 and older are expected to account for 16% of all crashes and 25% of all fatal crashes.
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Fact: Although many older drivers self-regulate their driving behavior, this is not enough to keep crash rates down.
As drivers age, they may begin to feel limited by slower reaction times, chronic health problems, and side effects from medications. Many reduce their mileage or stop driving altogether because they feel unsafe or lose their confidence. In 1990, males over the age of 70 drove, on average, 8,298 miles compared with 16,784 miles for males aged 20-24 years; for females, the figures were 3,976 miles and 11,807 miles, respectively.
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Older drivers not only drive substantially less, but also modify when and how they drive. Older drivers may reduce their mileage by eliminating long highway trips, thus driving mainly on local roads, which often contain more hazards in the form of signs, signals, traffic congestion and confusing intersections. Decreasing mileage, then, may not always proportionately decrease safety risks.
11 On the other hand, older drivers are more likely to wear safety belts and are less likely to drive at night, speed, tailgate, consume alcohol prior to driving, and engage in other risky behaviors.
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Despite all these self-measures, the crash rate per mile driven begins to increase at age 65.
5 On a case-by-case level, the risk of crash depends on whether each individual driver’s decreased mileage and behavior modifications are enough to counterbalance any decline in driving ability. In some cases, decline—for example, in the form of peripheral vision loss —may occur so insidiously that the driver is not aware of it until he/she experiences a motor vehicle crash. In the case of dementia, drivers may lack the insight to realize they are unsafe to drive. In a series of focus groups conducted with older adults who had stopped driving within the past five years, 40% of the participants knew someone over the age of 65 who had problems with his or her driving but was still behind the wheel.
12 Clearly, some older drivers require outside assessment and intervention when it comes to driving safety.
