The study described in this scientific poster is based on analyses of two large data files from the U.S. state of North Carolina (NC). The first is a crash file containing data from all reportable NC crashes involving drivers 45 years old or older for the ten-year period, 1987 through 1996. This file contained data on more than 825,000 crash-involved drivers. A second data file linked 1989-1995 crashes to the driver history records of all NC drivers who were 45 or older in 1996. This file contained over 2.6 million records. The crash file was analyzed to explore the nature of crashes involving older drivers and injuries resulting from these crashes. In two-vehicle crashes, each record was organized to contain not only information on the older (case) driver and vehicle, but also on the other driver and vehicle. A driver in a two-vehicle crash was considered to be at-fault if the accident report indicated one or more violations associated with that driver and none with the other driver. The results of the crash data analyses showed that the likelihood that a crash involved driver was at-fault in all types of two-vehicle crashes increased steadily with increasing driver age. This result was very consistent over the 10-year span of the data. Driver/vehicle manoeuvres for which the increase in at-fault rate with age was most pronounced were left turns, right turns, and going straight ahead angle collisions.
Abstract