Factors related to more severe older driver traffic crash injuries

The population of the U.S. is aging, and the number of older persons licensed to drive keeps increasing. With the aging population and increase in the number of older licensed drivers, addressing safety issues related to older drivers is becoming more crucial every day. This paper reports on the analysis of 1990-1999 crash data from the State of Iowa in which an older driver (age greater than or equal to65 years) was injured. The main focus of the study was to isolate factors that contribute to more severe injuries to older drivers involved in traffic crashes. The ordered probit modeling technique was used to investigate factors from vehicle, roadway, driver, crash, and environmental characteristics that can potentially contribute to older driver crash injury severity. Model findings were primarily as expected. New findings from this study were that older drivers who consumed alcohol were more likely to be seriously injured and older driver injuries in farm vehicles were more severe as compared with other types of vehicles. The writers discuss implications of the findings for the safety of older drivers.