Identifying Risk of Car Accident Injuries for Older Drivers

A recent study provides some new information about the potential causes of auto accidents involving older drivers and the risk of a personal injury from a car accident for drivers over 65 years old.

In the March/April issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, researchers from the University of Florida looked at crash data from 5,345 older drivers collected by the 2005 Florida Traffic Crash Records Database. Failure to maintain a lane of travel, yielding and estimating when to cross over lanes of traffic were the most likely causes of auto accident injuries among elderly drivers. Researchers also found that female drivers were more likely to be injured in auto accidents than older male drivers (44% compared to 29%), but the likelihood of either gender being involved in an accident was about the same.

While car accidents caused by errors in judgment, such as staying in their lane, crossing lanes and estimating room between cars resulted in injuries 50% of the time, speed management, distractions and vehicle positioning errors also frequently caused elderly drivers to be hurt in crashes.

A press release from the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (AOTA), said that the study’s results point to a need for injury prevention strategies specifically targeted at older drivers. The AOTA statement indicates that occupational therapists could help identify elderly drivers with judgment problems who were more likely to be injured in car accidents, and said that age-related conditions and judgment errors should be more of a focus on accident prevention than simply the age of the drivers.