Older Drivers, Crashes and Injuries

Abstract

Objective: This article aimed to identify the main features of older driver casualty crashes, including detailed descriptions of injury outcomes.

Methods: Data were obtained from the Transport Accident Commission insurance claims database for 2 groups of drivers: aged 41 to 55 years (middle-aged drivers) and aged 65 years and older (older drivers).

Results: In terms of crash circumstances, the majority of crashes involved a collision with another vehicle (70.0% of middle-aged drivers and 68.7% of older drivers). The 2 main maneuvers at the time of crash were driving straight ahead (44.6% of middle-aged drivers and 42.8% of older drivers) and turning right (equivalent of left turn in North America; 15.2% of middle-aged drivers and 17.6% of older drivers). In terms of injury outcomes, older drivers sustained a significantly higher proportion of injuries to the thorax (30.9% compared to 18.5% of middle-aged drivers). Conversely, a significantly higher proportion of middle-aged drivers sustained some form of injury to the neck (30.6% compared to 12.1% of older drivers).

Conclusion: These findings highlight the situations that are particularly risky for older drivers and provide important insights for developing solutions to reduce older driver crash and injury risk.

Keywords:

• Older drivers
• Crash risk
• Crash scenarios
• Injury patterns
• Safety

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The analyses conducted in this article were only possible through the cooperation of the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, with special thanks due to David Attwood and his staff in providing a suitable data set from the Commission's crash data base.

Notes

It is not possible to calculate the exact proportion of crashes because the TAC database contains injury claims (including those that result in death) for all medical and paramedical treatments arising from a road crash, whereas the VicRoads database only includes data relating to out-patient and in-patient hospital treatment and fatalities.

Total number of licensed drivers aged 41–55 years: No data available for 2000. As of March 6, 2001 = 947,067; as of March 6, 2002 = 964104; as of March 6, 2003 = 975,631; as of March 6, 2004 = 990,480; as of March 6, 2005 = 1,006,798; as of March 6, 2006 = 1,021,157; as of March 6, 2007 = 1,035,916.

Total number of licensed drivers aged 65+ years: No data available for 2000. As of March 6, 2001 = 423,134; as of March 6, 2002 = 431,243; as of March 6, 2003 = 441,418; as of March 6, 2004 = 454,387; as of March 6, 2005 = 468,509; as of March 6, 2006 = 480,790; as of March 6, 2007 = 502,781.