Since 1997, accident rates among seniors has seen a big decline.
Ten years ago safety researchers feared traffic accidents would increase as the nation’s aging
population swelled the number of older drivers on the road. Now they’ve been proved wrong.
Today’s drivers 70 and older are less likely to be involved in crashes than previous generations
and are less likely to be killed or seriously injured of they do crash. The Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety reports vehicles are getting safer and seniors are generally getting healthier.
From 1997 to 2012, fatal crashes rates per licensed driver fell 42 percent for older drivers, and
30 percent for middle-aged drivers. The greatest rate of decline was among drivers 80 and over,
nearly twice that of middle-aged drivers and those aged 70 to 74.
At the same time, older drivers are putting more miles on the odometer than they used to,
although they’re still driving fewer miles a year than middle-aged drivers. That’s especially true
for drivers 75 and older who lifted their average annual mileage by more than 50 percent from
1995 to 2008.
Perhaps with age comes wisdom, caution and good judgment behind the steering wheel.
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