New studies of elderly drivers show that they are more of a risk to themselves than anyone else. A new analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that as older drivers age into their 80s, they are more likely to be at fault in collisions. The study examined injury rates from three federal data sources, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the National Automotive Sampling System, and the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey. It also incorporated data from the Highway Loss Data Institute. Researchers say that it has more variety and scope of data sources and looked at four groups of people: drivers, their passengers, occupants of other vehicles and others on the road. Drivers 70 and older tend to have older passengers, and their death rates were higher than among those 30 to 59 years old. But they were not more likely to be in collisions that were fatal to other occupants of vehicles or other road users. But claims, which are based on driver liability, tend to rise steeply as drivers age past 70, with claim rates for those over 85 approaching those for teenagers. Still, they are less likely to hurt other people. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting