Road Safety of an Ageing Population

For all travelers in Britain except bus passengers, people aged 60 and over are underrepresented among road accident casualties of all severities (mainly slight). For all travelers except pedal cyclists, people aged 60+ are over-represented among road accident fatalities. The same statements apply to people aged 80+. The reason for this difference is the increasing fragility of people as they age. People aged over 80 are about six times as likely to be killed in a given accident as someone aged 20 - 50. For elderly people, road accident fatalities are primarily pedestrians. For everyone aged 60 and over, 49 percent of all fatalities are pedestrians, and outnumber car occupants, who are 43 percent of all fatalities. For people aged 80 and over, pedestrians are 61 percent of all fatalities. Older drivers have different types of accident to younger drivers, often involving collisions at intersections and failure to yield right-of-way. A slightly higher proportion of accidents to older pedestrians are on a pedestrian crossing. Older bus passengers are most likely to be injured in accidents that do not involve collisions or violent maneuvers. Their injury is most likely to be caused by a fall within the bus.