CARE IMPACT Study of Senior Driver Caused Traffic Crashes: 2013-2017 Data

The comparisons in this document are between those crashes that were caused by senior drivers (age 65 or older) compared to all other crashes. This enabled the characteristics for these crashes to surface so that traffic safety professionals can determine their magnitude and optimize senior driver safety programs to place emphasis on the most important factors. In many cases the comparison led to conclusions that were expected, being well established over the years. A very important general finding that confirms studies done by CAPS personnel from well over a decade ago is that senior drivers are relatively risk averse compared to younger drivers. This will be noticed in virtually all of the IMPACT comparisons below: the older driver red bars will be higher in those categories that generally involve lower risk. Examples include lower speeds, avoidance of late night driving and bad weather, and many other categories that will be noticed as risk-avoidance. Since these results should be well understood, they will not be discussed unless there some aspects of them that bear mentioning.