Adjusting for nighttime crash, high-speed crash, and seatbelt use, they calculated the odds of an older driver being killed or hospitalized compared with those of a younger driver. During the study years, there were 14,466 drivers older than 69 years and 68,706 drivers between the ages of 30 and 39 years involved in motor vehicle crashes in Utah. Older drivers were less likely to have crashes involving drug or alcohol use and less likely to have crashes at high speed. Also, older drivers were more likely to be killed or hospitalized than younger drivers. Among belted drivers, an older driver was nearly 7 times more likely to be killed or hospitalized than a younger driver.
Older drivers do have distinctive motor vehicle crash patterns.
Interventions must be taken to reduce the number of left-hand turn crashes involving older drivers. In addition, further research is needed to design, implement, and evaluate countermeasures that may enable older drivers to continue driving while keeping public safety in the forefront Grisoni ER, Pillai SB, Volsko TA, Mutabagani K, Garcia V, Haley K et al. The charts of children treated at any of 3 regional pediatric trauma centers in Ohio were reviewed for airbag injuries sustained in motor vehicle crashes between January 1995 and September 1998. Sixty-one percent were girls. No significant differences in the mean ISS occurred between groups.