But while teens mature and become safer, increasing maturity has the opposite effect on the old. And no group of drivers is more hazardous than teenagers, with their combination of inexperience and recklessness. For one thing, they are less likely than other groups to speed and drive drunk. Older drivers, too, are less likely to be involved in traffic fatalities than in years past, with recent evidence showing a welcome and unexpected falloff.Īnne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the IIHS, says older drivers are often unfairly demonized. The reasons for the improvement are numerous, from a crackdown on drunk driving, to safer car design, to seatbelt laws, to the introduction of graduated licensing for teens. Though the toll remains enormous, a fortunate trend over the past 40 years is that the roads are safer for everyone, with a national decline in traffic fatalities from a high of 54,600 in 1972 to about 33,800 in 2010. Two years ago, an 81-year-old Florida woman failed to yield when merging onto the highway, smashing into a bus carrying seniors on an elder hostel trip, killing at least two and injuring dozens.ĭespite these dreadful incidents, it’s wrong to assume that our streets are about to become the setting for the Cataract 500.
There was 86-year-old George Weller, who drove through the Santa Monica farmer’s market in 2003, killing 10 and injuring 63.
The stories of the carnage caused by unfit older drivers are sobering.
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