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Aging News & Information
Senior Citizens Not As Dangerous Behind the Wheel as
Youngest Drivers
Not much more likely to cause auto accidents than
baby boomers
 July 19, 2007 Most adults are quick to criticize
older drivers as being dangerous behind the wheel, but a new study
finds that facts do not support this assumption. Senior citizens (65 and
older) are just one-third as likely as drivers 18 to 25 to cause auto
accidents, and not much more likely than drivers 26 to 64, which
includes the baby boomers, to cause accidents, according to a RAND
Corporation study issued yesterday.
While driving ability declines with age for most
people, those seniors who continue to drive appear to be safer drivers
than the general public might think, said David Loughran, a RAND senior
economist and professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School who is the
lead author of the study.
By far, it is the youngest drivers who pose the
greatest risk to traffic safety.
Researchers found that in 2001, people 65 and older
accounted for about 15 percent of all licensed drivers but caused only
about 7 percent of all accidents in the United States. By contrast,
people ages 18 to 25 accounted for just 13 percent of all licensed
drivers, but caused 43 percent of all accidents.
Because senior citizens are generally in poorer
health and more frail than younger people, drivers 65 and older are at
much greater risk of serious injury or death when they do have an
accident, according to the study by RAND, a nonprofit research
organization. Senior drivers are nearly seven times more likely than
younger drivers to be killed in a two-car accident.
Seniors who drive pose a much larger risk to
themselves than to others, Loughran said.
As the U.S. population ages, injury rates will
increase not because seniors cause more accidents, but because seniors
are more vulnerable to injury when they get into an accident.
It is projected that by 2025, drivers 65 and older
will represent 25 percent of the driving population, compared with 14
percent in 2001. Previous research has shown that as people age, their
driving ability becomes impaired.
Seniors appear to make fairly sound decisions
about when to reduce the amount they drive or stop driving altogether,
Loughran said.
Not only do seniors drive much less than younger
drivers, but they drive at safer times during the day and avoid poorer
road conditions.
The study estimated accident risks by examining
more than 170,000 fatal traffic accidents crashes around the United
States between 1976 and 2003 among adult drivers in three age groups: 18
to 25; 26 to 64; and 65 and older.
In response to an aging driving population, many
states have imposed more stringent licensing requirements, such as
in-person renewals and mandatory vision testing for senior drivers.
While only Illinois and New Hampshire require older drivers to take a
road test, several recent high-profile accidents involving older drivers
have caused legislators in a number of states to consider tightening
licensing requirements for older drivers.
The report is titled Regulating
Older Drivers: Are New Policies Needed? It was funded and produced
by the
RAND Institute for Civil Justice and is available at www.rand.org.
Other authors of the report include Seth A. Seabury and Laura Zakaras of
RAND.
The RAND Institute for Civil Justice helps make the
civil justice system more efficient and equitable by supplying
government leaders, private decision-makers and the public with the
results of objective, empirically based, analytic research.
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address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the
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