Factors Affecting Common Vehicle-to-Vehicle Collision Types: Road Safety Priorities in an Aging Society

Abstract

The number of older drivers (65+ years old) is increasing as a result of the baby boom generation reaching retirement age and an increase in driver's license holders among the elderly. The types of collisions incurred by older drivers are compared with those of drivers 30 to 60 years old in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions using the General Estimates System 2002-2003 sampling of reported motor vehicle collisions compiled by the NHTSA National Center for Statistics and Analysis. Multinomial logit vehicle-to-vehicle collision outcome models that account for driver, vehicle, roadway, environmental, and temporal characteristics were created for drivers age 65 and older and a comparison group of drivers 30 to 60 years old. The older drivers are significantly more prone to collisions related to vehicle turning and intersecting paths—particularly at signalized intersections—than are 30-to-60-year-old drivers. As a factor, age is elastic for same-direction and vehicle-turning crashes. Probability decreases with age ...