Common causes of accidents involving older people in road traffic

The public debate about mandatory fitness to drive checks for age groups of 60 and older continues to flare up! Offers such as voluntary driver safety training and medical checks are intended to contribute to greater safety on the roads. How useful are psychological tests in this context?

In 2023, more older people were killed on the roads than at any time since records began in 1992 in Austria. 35% of these people were traveling by car. Older road users not only had more serious accidents than younger people, but also caused more serious accidents: 18% of drivers over the age of 65 caused serious road accidents (involving multiple people), compared to 13% of drivers in other age groups. Among the causes of accidents, right-of-way violations (45%) and inattention/distraction (24%) dominate among older people. (Statistics Austria, 2024). Similar results can be observed not only in Austria, but for example also in Germany (DEKRA; 2021). The phenomenon is therefore not just localized or unique to Austria.

One of the key problem for many older people is coping with complex traffic situations. Typical age-related causes of accidents include disregarding the right of way at junctions, wrong turns, parking in and out of parking spaces and errors when changing lanes (Federal Highway Research Institute, 2024).

In addition to the higher risk of developing a neurological disease in old age, cognitive functions that are crucial for driving-related performance are also subject to natural ageing processes. These include inhibitory control (Adrian, Moessinger et al. 2019), visual attention (Karthaus, Falkenstein 2016), fluid intelligence (Aichele, Rabbitt et al. 2015) and reaction speed (Salvia, Petit et al. 2016).

The attentive reader will have noticed that all of this requires functions that can be very well captured by psychological test procedures. And we would like to emphasize at this point that we are not automatically talking about selection, but rather about psychological assessment as a way of maintaining mobility. By measuring various relevant dimensions, a person’s actual state can be determined.

Based on this, suitable measures can be taken to maintain or restore fitness to drive. This is particularly important as maintaining mobility is closely linked to maintaining independence and mental well-being, especially in older people. However, in order to implement suitable measures to maintain mobility, a careful assessment of possible deficits is essential. For this reason, the procedures used must also meet certain requirements. In addition to the obvious requirements of sufficient objectivity, reliability and validity, sufficient standardization and applicability for older people is also necessary. If these conditions are sufficiently fulfilled, psychological assessements can be seen as an important piece of the puzzle in the catalog of measures to increase the road safety of older people.

The Fitness to Drive Screening (DRIVESC) test set measures ability and personality characteristics that are relevant to road safety.

You can find out more here!

References:

Adrian, J.; Moessinger, M.; Charles, A.; Postal, V. (2019): Exploring the contribution of
executive functions to on-road driving performance during aging: A latent variable analysis.

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 127, 96–109. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.aap.2019.02.010
Aichele, S., Rabbitt, P., & Ghisletta, P. (2015). Life span decrements in fluid intelligence and processing speed predict mortality risk. Psychology and Aging, 30(3), 598–612.
https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000035

Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, (2024). Älterer Verkehrsteilnehmer. BASt – Fachthemen Verhalten und Sicherheit – Ältere Verkehrsteilnehmer retrived 24.06.2024

DEKRA (2021). Road Safety Report. Old-Age Mobility dekra-evs-report-2021-en-0629.pdf (e-spirit.cloud) Retrived 14.06.2024

Karthaus, M.; Falkenstein, M. (2016): Functional changes and driving performance in older
drivers: Assessment and interventions. Geriatrics, 1, 2, 12, https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics1020012

Salvia, E.; Petit, C.; Champely, S.; Chomette, R.; Di Rienzo, F.; Collet, C. (2016): Effects of
age and task load on drivers’ response accuracy and reaction time when responding to traffic lights. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 8

Statistics Austria. (2024). New record number of senior casualties in road traffic accidents.
[Press release 13 256-022/249].

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