Study: Older Drivers Among Safest on America’s Roads

Jan. 24, 2009 – Motorists over age 70 are keeping their drivers licenses longer and traveling more than their predecessors, yet a recent study indicates fatalities among the nation’s elderly drivers has declined in recent years as they greatly improve their safe-driving habits, according to a recent study.

Contrary to researchers’ expectations, a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates fatal auto accidents involving elderly drivers have declined significantly over the past decade.

“It’s not what people had expected to see,” said Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president for research at the insurance institute. “There were some studies, including our own research, that had predicted older driver crashes would become a bigger and bigger problem.”

Although fatal accident rates have declined among older drivers, they still have much higher death rates per mile driven when compared to middle-age drivers from age 35 through 54, according to researchers. But motorist fatality rates increase significantly after age 80. Drivers under age 20 also have a much higher fatality rate than middle-age motorists.

Car fatalities involving young people are almost entirely due to their inexperience as drivers, according to the research institute. Although crash rates are slightly higher for older people, most of their increased risk for a fatal car accident is caused by a greater susceptibility to life-threatening injuries, particularly to the chest, and other medical complications, according to researchers.

But fatalities among older drivers have decreased by about 35 percent since 1975 and are at their lowest level ever, according to researchers. And fatal accident rates among older drivers are declining more rapidly than any other age group.

Older drivers also are less to be at fault in drunk-driving accidents. Only percent of drivers age 70 and older who died in accidents had blood-alcohol levels above the legal limit in 2007, according to researchers. By comparison, about 41 percent of drivers age 16 to 59 who were killed in accidents had been drinking.

While an apparently lower rate of drinking and driving among elderly drivers is one clear reason for their declining fatality rates, officials for the insurance institute will continue to exam why driving risks appear to be declining for older drivers.

“We’re intent on doing research to try to figure out why we’re seeing this,” McCartt said. “It’s certainly a possibility that older drivers compared to 10 or 20 years ago are in better condition in various ways.”