Organisation: North East Regional Road Safety Resource
Date uploaded: 27th October 2014
Date published/launched: October 2014
This report analyses the statistics on older road user (70+) involvement in collisions on roads in North East England between 2009 and 2013. It looks into both older road user injuries, and collisions that involved an older driver or rider.
This research topic has been chosen for detailed investigation due to the potential road safety issues related to an aging population in the region, with projections from the Office for National Statistics estimating that one in five people (20%) in the North East will be aged 70 and over by 2034 (compared to 13% in 2013), and information from the DVLA showing that currently just under half of these older people hold a driving licence.
While research does suggest that older road users are generally “safer” than younger people, they do face certain issues that are picked up by this report.
In brief, the report that while the number of casualties sustained by older road users have been decreasing, they have not reduced at as fast a rate as seen by other age groups, especially when taking into account the increasing size of the population aged over 70 in the region. However, older road users do account for one of the lowest casualty groups in the North East even when allowing for the aging population.
Looking at older drivers and riders, the study found that number of older drivers involved in collisions has been increasing over the last few years, while the numbers of drivers from most other age groups has been reducing over the same period. However, in terms of actual numbers of drivers involved in collisions, only drivers under the age of 17 were involved in fewer collisions than older drivers. Furthermore, whilst older drivers account for 10% of the region’s licence holders, they are only involved in 5% of crashes, while drivers aged 17 to 24 make up 8% of the North East’s licence holders but were involved in 19% of collisions (between 2009 and 2013).
The main message from this report is that whilst there are currently bigger issues to address on the North East’s roads than older road users involved in collisions (e.g. younger drivers, the failure to look properly, people driving for work etc.), this is an area where there has not been the same levels of improvement as for other road user groups and issues, which may be exacerbated in coming years with the increasing population (and as a result, the number of drivers).
For more information contact:
Peter Slater
T: 0191 433 3165