Who is an Older Road User?

Who exactly counts as an older road user is not an easy question to answer. The United Nations defines anyone over the age of 50 as an older person, but Australian statistics suggest that people around 50 are amongst the safest road users.

For drivers and passengers, the same statistics suggest that some major changes in safety occur from around age 65 and at around age 75 the changes become more pronounced.

There is some evidence from insurance company data that informing people aged 60 and over about road safety issues can help them to take action to increase their road safety and results in fewer accidents. So if you are anywhere between 55 and 100, this site is for you.

ACT Road Statistics 2002 and 2003 - consider the following facts

In 2002, people aged 65 and over made up about 8.8% of the ACT population. By 2032, the proportion of people aged 65 and over are expected to make up 22% of the ACT population. If, as we are about to explore, there are greater road use risks for those of us aged 65 and over, then we need to take action to keep ourselves safer.

• The ACT has fewer road fatalities per head of population than other states.
• In 2003, we had 9 road fatalities which was one less than in 2002.
• In 2003, the oldest person to die on our roads was 56, in 2002 three (3) people aged over 80 died.
• There were 8247 Road Crashes in 2002. Some 394 people were injured. Ten (10) people died on ACT Roads.
• In 2002, 37 people aged 65+ were injured on ACT roads. That's 9.4% of the injuries.
• Remember, many of us drive in NSW, and ACT residents often contribute to their statistics!

While the ACT statistics are interesting, our population is relatively small and sometimes that means that the numbers seem small. Looking at Australia as a whole perhaps provides a clearer picture.

Australian Road Statistics - 2002

• Total Fatalities = 1715
• Fatalities of those aged 65+ = 262
• Those aged 65 and over accounted for 15.3% of fatal accidents but only represent. 12.7% of the Australian population (i.e. fatalities are higher than we might expect).
• Women aged 65 and over accounted for 35% of all female pedestrian fatalities.
• Men aged 65 and over accounted for 21% of all male pedestrian fatalities.
• Overall men and women aged 65 and over account for 25% of all pedestrian fatalities.

Consider the following graph:

Compare this to the same year for all road users

If we analyse the number of fatalities per Million kilometers traveled for each age group, we find the results shown below.

Note: The relative risk is calculated by comparing each group to that of the group with the least number of deaths.

Unfortunately, the evidence is that those aged 65 and over are more likely to die on the road than any other age group other than those aged 17-25. Those aged 75 and over are at the greatest risk of death or injury.

This is not necessarily an indication that older people are unsafe road users. There are issues of increasing physical frailty and factors such as slowing down which contribute to the risk, but nevertheless, we can't escape the reality of the information about risk.

As a result we owe it to ourselves and other road users to take action to maintain and update our knowledge and skills. Have a look at the section on the Impacts of Ageing, and then review those other areas that might be of concern to you.