Demographic and economic changes in Australia are disproportionately impacting road safety fatality outcomes for older people. While the growth in population and numbers of licence-holders exceeds the growth in fatalities for all ages, there have been consistent reductions in deaths of younger people but flat trends and recent increases in deaths of older people. These recent increases appear mainly in driver and motorcyclist fatalities. Hospitalisation statistics (to 2009) show increasing trends for all age groups. The types of fatal crashes involving an older operator differ from fatal crashes which do not. The aggregated data presented here confirm previous findings that intersections are over-represented, as are multiple vehicle crashes. Run-off-the-road (often high-speed) crashes are under-represented. These and other related results are explored in greater depth in the list of references provided. (Author/publisher)
Abstract