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Aging News & Information
Study Explores Why Older Drivers Have So Many Wrecks
at Intersections?
Protected left turn arrows and roundabouts may help
the oldest drivers
 March 19, 2007 - Studies going back decades reveal
that older drivers are over-represented in collisions at intersections.
Forty percent of the fatal collisions of people 70 and older - compared
with 23 percent of the crashes of 35-54 year-olds - occur at
intersections and involve other vehicles. What mistakes are leading
older motorists to get into intersection crashes?
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A new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study
focuses on intersection crashes involving more than 200 drivers in 3 age
groups -- two groups of older drivers (70-79 years old and 80- plus) and
a comparison group of 35-54 year-olds.
The researchers studied crashes involving injuries
on Connecticut roads during 2003-04, examining police reports and
photographs of the intersections where the crashes occurred. The
researchers also interviewed the drivers found at fault in the
collisions.
"The interviews with the at-fault drivers are what
set this study apart from earlier ones, giving a clearer picture of the
mistakes people of various ages are making behind the wheel and why,"
says Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research.
"Previous studies have compared the kinds of
crashes older versus younger drivers get into, and in the interviews we
delved further into the underlying reasons."
Older drivers fail to yield
The types of crashes in which drivers 70- plus
years old are at fault differ from crashes for which 35-54 year-olds are
responsible. These differences amplify with age so that the crashes of
drivers 80 and older also differ from those of 70-79 year-olds.
Among the drivers in Connecticut, rear-end crashes
accounted for a lower proportion of 80-plus drivers' intersection
crashes. Both groups of older drivers, those 70-79 and 80-plus, had
lower proportions of run-off-the-road crashes than 35-54 year-olds.
In contrast, failure to yield the right of way to
other vehicles led to more than half of the intersection crashes for
which the oldest drivers were responsible. This compares with about
one-third of the intersection crashes of 70-79 year-olds and about
one-fourth of those involving 35-54 year-olds.
Why they crashed
Reasons for intersection crashes varied by the
drivers age.
People 70-79 made more evaluation errors than
drivers of other ages. That is, they saw potentially conflicting
vehicles but misjudged whether there was time to proceed. Drivers in the
other age groups (35-54 and 80-plus) more often failed to see
potentially conflicting vehicles.
The 35-54 year-olds said it was because they became
distracted, while most of the drivers 80-plus said they were looking but
simply didn't see the conflict.
McCartt says the failure to see other vehicles "may
be due to increases in vision impairments, which escalate rapidly after
about age 75.
Another factor could involve the complexity of
urban intersections, with vehicles traveling in multiple directions.
Older drivers may experience decreasing ability to process the multiple
sources of information at once and maneuver safely."
Range of head movement might also be a factor in
older drivers' crashes. These ranges have been found to decrease with
age, which could hinder a driver's ability to see potentially
conflicting vehicles.
Whatever the reasons for the intersection crashes,
those involving failure to yield occurred more often where traffic is
controlled by stop signs than at intersections with signal lights (more
rear-end crashes occurred at the signals).
Fifty-nine percent of the failure-to-yield crashes
occurred at stop signs, and 50 percent of these crashes occurred while
motorists were turning left. The proportions didn't vary much across the
3 age groups.
Other studies do indicate an age effect. For
example, a 2002 study by University of Kentucky researchers found that
each advancing year of age after 65 increases by 8 percent the odds of
getting into a crash that involves turning left.
Not surprisingly, it's the converse in Australia.
Motorists there travel on the left side of the road, and as Australian
drivers get older they become over-represented in collisions involving
right turns.
Some ideas that might help
Older people represent an increasing proportion of
the US population, and this trend is escalating as baby boomers age.
Older people are keeping their driver's licenses longer than in past
years, and they're driving more miles.
For these reasons, it's becoming increasingly
important to find ways to reduce the frequency and severity of older
people's crashes, including the collisions that occur at intersections.
One way would be to add green arrows to protect
left turns at intersections controlled by signal lights (see Status
Report, Sept. 8, 2001; on the web at
http://www.iihs.org/). Then motorists, including older people,
wouldn't have to judge how fast vehicles are approaching from the other
direction and whether there's enough time to turn in front of them.
Another approach would be to construct more
roundabouts in place of intersections with traffic lights and stop
signs. These circular intersections have design features that slow
traffic and promote efficient flow (see Status Report, May 13, 2000; on
the web at
http://www.iihs.org/).
They also might be easier for older drivers to
navigate because vehicles go through them in one direction, not from
multiple directions.
For a copy of "Crash and error types of older
drivers' intersection crashes" by K.A. Braitman et al., write:
Publications, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 N. Glebe Rd.,
Arlington, VA 22201, or see
http://www.iihs.org/.
Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
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