An overview of the risks drivers themselves face, and the risks they impose on other road users, is presented using the dependence on age and sex of various United States crash and fatality rates. While some measures of crash involvement increase with age, their values remain below those for drivers in their late teens and early 20's. If a 16-year-old male driver's crash risk declines by 7% throughout his life, his longevity increases by more than the longevity increase a 65-year-old driver obtains by reducing crash risk to zero. Reducing the younger driver's overall crash risk by 12% reduces the risk pedestrians face by more than reducing the older driver's crash risk to zero. Compared to the other death risks Compared to the other death risks as one ages, traffic risk plays an ever diminishing role. The older driver problem may be more one of reduced mobility than of reduced safety. The results are all based on cross-sectional analyses. A recent longitudinal analysis showed that because older drivers had higher rates when they were younger than today's younger drivers, the increases with increasing age are in fact less than indicated by the cross-sectional analyses. (A)
Samenvatting