Citation

Cooper PJ, Tallman K, Tuokko H, Beattie BL. J. Traffic Med. 1993; 21(1): 21-27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, International Association for Accident and Traffic Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

From 1988 to 1991 the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (Canada) was involved in research concerning elderly drivers. Such drivers have traditionally been viewed as good insurance risks since they drive less than those of younger age and are involved in relatively few crashes. But other evidence points to higher-than- average accident rates per unit of driving exposure. Since the current demographic and social trends suggest increasing participation of the elderly in the driving process, the actual performance of older drivers while on the road may become of somewhat greater concern. The problems faced by older drivers go beyond the commonly understood performance decrements such as motor response time increase. Cognitive ability also suffers with age and especially is this so for individuals suffering from dementing disorders such as Alzheimer disease. The findings of the Insurance Corporation's investigations confirmed that elderly drivers (aged 55 and over) as a group encounter driving problems which lead to greater risk of at-fault crashes than is the case for middle-aged drivers. The findings also strongly suggest that the presence of dementia symptoms exacerbates this risk. (A)