Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Safety
Next year, the very first Baby Boomers will be 65 years old. By 2025, nearly one in five drivers will be 65 or older. Looking even further ahead, the number of licensed drivers over age 65 is set to double in 2030, to 57 million. The National Transportation Safety Board believes that the government needs to prepare for this and work towards reducing death and injury rates for elderly drivers.
We've already seen a substantial drop in elderly driver deaths, however. The number of drivers aged 70 or older involved in fatal accidents has declined by 20 percent over the last decade. Buried in that nice-sounding statistic is a more serious one, though: a driver over 70 is three times as likely to sustain a fatal injury compared to someone 35 to 54 years old.
Studies show that the average male drives six years longer than he should and the average female continues driving for another 10 years after she should turn in her keys. State governments are allowed to decide on their own restrictions pertaining to elderly drivers, and many provisions are making it onto upcoming ballots. They include requiring vision tests, shortening renewal periods and banning renewal by mail.
[Source:
The Detroit News | Image: Getty]
Report: Baby boomers about to flood roads with older drivers originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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15-11-2010, 01:20 AM
