Elderly Driver Increase May Prompt Safety Board Recommendations
U.S. drivers age 65 or older will increase from 15 percent to 20 percent of the driving population by 2025, prompting a safety panel to consider recommendations such as new designs for automobiles and roads and testing requirements for elderly motorists.
The issue of older drivers is a “rising tide” as the U.S. population ages and life expectancy increases, Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said today at a forum in Washington on older drivers. “The real challenge for all of us, whether it’s for our parents or for us, is when do you reach that point” to stop driving, she said in an interview.
The meeting marks the first time in its 40 years that the agency has looked at safety issues involving older drivers. “We want to know what the risks are and what some of the possible mitigations are,” she said.
The board, which issues recommendations to improve transportation safety, could use its evaluation to suggest automobile or road designs that would be safer for older drivers, Hersman said. The board could recommend medical-related considerations for licensing older drivers for whom dementia is a particular concern, she said.
The NTSB considered medical- and age-related causes of a 2003 accident in Santa Monica, California, where an 86-year-old man drove his car through an outdoor market killing 10 people.
32 Million on the Road
Licensed drivers age 65 and older number more than 32 million today and are more likely to die or be seriously injured in crashes than younger people behind the wheel, Hersman said.
“America is aging,” she said. “Baby-boomers are now well into their middle years. More and more seniors are on the road than ever before.”
Aging drivers may face risk from illnesses, including dementia, Bonnie Dobbs, who directs the Medically At-Risk Driver Centre at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, said at the forum. Licenses for drivers with cognitive impairments must be restricted just as a drunk driver wouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel, she said.
The safety board, based in Washington, investigates transportation accidents and recommends safety-related changes to regulators, lawmakers and companies.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Allan Holmes at aholmes25@bloomberg.net
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