VEHICLE CRASH INVOLVEMENT AND COGNITIVE DEFICIT IN OLDER DRIVERS

The driving records of 165 older persons who were classified as having dementia in a clinic assessment were examined in this study. These records were compared with those of a stratified random sample selected from the population of drivers in British Columbia. The dementia group was found to have been involved in over twice the number of collisions as their controls were during identical time periods. Further, over 80% of the dementia group who experienced a crash event (and who were almost all judged at fault) continued driving for up to 3 years following the event, and during this time over one third of these had at least one more accident.