Collisions Involving Older Drivers

It is forecast (DfT 2007) that, by 2011, there will be approximately 12.2 million people in the UK over state pension age, many of whom will be continuing to drive for many years after retirement.

A sample of more than 2,000 reported crashes involving drivers aged over 60 was considered, from three midland UK police forces for the years 1994-2005 inclusive.

Each case was summarised on a database, including the main objective features (such as time and place), a summary narrative, a sketch plan and a list of explanatory factors. The summary narrative, in particular, included judgements by the researchers that emphasised the sequence of events leading up to the crash.

The main findings were as follows:

• Drivers aged under 70 years appeared to be no more likely to have caused any given crash than to have been the victim of another driver’s carelessness. However, blameworthiness increased with driver age; drivers aged 85 years or more appeared to be more than four times as likely to have caused a crash than they were to have been innocently involved.

• The most frequent class of crash caused by drivers aged over 60 years was right of way crashes; approximately 45% of the crashes where the older driver was to blame involved violation of another driver’s right of way.

• The most frequent failures observed involved visual search errors when turning right onto a more major road.

• Older drivers also succumbed to illness and fatigue in a significant minority of cases. Cognitive failures also led them to be involved in a minority of cases of ‘unintended acceleration’.