After the teenage years, the rate of accidents per mile driven drops steadily with age, reaching a low of 3.5 accidents per million miles driven for Americans ages 65 to 69, the federal data show. But at age 70, the trend reverses. Motorists age 70 to 74 have nearly 5 accidents per million miles on the road. For those between 75 and 79, the rate is 7.26 accidents per million miles. By 85, it climbs to 14.07, exceeded only by the teenage rate.
Age is also a factor in the ability to survive accidents.
Being more brittle, elderly people are far more likely to be severely injured or killed. In the Philadelphia region, drivers 70 and older were involved in 9 percent of all accidents between 1995 and 1999 but accounted for 15 percent of all deaths. Nationwide, traffic fatalities decreased by 9 percent between 1989 and 1999 but increased 14 percent for those older than 70. Now, about 6,000 people older than 65 die each year in car accidents. That number is expected to rise more than fourfold over the next 30 years, to 25,000 per year, said John Eberhard, senior research psychologist for the U.S. Department of Transportation.