Assisting the older driver - SWOV

Assisting the older driver
Based on Dutch crash statistics, similar estimates of the relative legal
responsibility of drivers of different age groups were made (see Appendix A
for assumptions made to derive crash responsibility). The data selection
consisted of drivers involved in injury crashes between two cars. The results
are shown in Table 1.1. The column that is titled ʹRatio R/Iʹ shows the ratios
for all injury crashes. These ratios are similar to those of Cooper (1989), with
the exception of the ratio for the 60‐64 years old. For this age group, the ratio
for the Netherlands has already reached 1.00, whereas Cooper found 0.89.
The three other ʹRatioʹ columns include ratios for injury crashes that resulted
in fatalities, hospital admissions, or less severe injuries as maximum injury
severity respectively. In general it can be said that for the 18‐39 year olds, 60‐
64 year olds, and those aged 75 or above, crash responsibility is not related to
crash severity. However, it appears that the 40‐60 year olds are less often
responsible for crashes that led to more severe injuries; the more severe the
maximum injury severity of a crash is, the less often they are legally
responsible for it. The 65‐74 year olds, on the other hand, appear to be more
often legally responsible the more severe the maximum injury severity is. Of
course, vulnerability again plays a role here. In general, the older driver
himself will be the one who is the most severely injured.
Age
All fatal and injury crashes Fatal Hospital Less
severely
injured
Responsible
‘Innocent’
Number (%) Number (%)
Ratio
R/I
Ratio Ratio Ratio
18‐24 8148 (21.2) 5968 (15.6) 1.37 1.40 1.28 1.39
25‐29 6258 (16.3) 6354 (16.6) 0.98 0.98 1.00 0.98
30‐39 8522 (22.2) 10114 (26.4) 0.84 0.82 0.83 0.85
40‐49 5711 (14.9) 7265 (18.9) 0.79 0.62 0.76 0.80
50‐59 4053 (10.6) 4780 (12.5) 0.85 0.64 0.79 0.87
60‐64 1363 (3.6) 1353 (3.5) 1.01 1.00 1.06 0.99
65‐74 2351 (6.1) 1586 (4.1) 1.48 2.06 1.53 1.45
75+ 1512 (3.9) 505 (1.3) 2.99 2.84 3.40 2.84
Total 38388 (100) 38388 (100) 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
Table 1.1. Relative chance of being the legally responsible crash opponent in a fatal or
injury crash, by age group and crash severity (1994‐1998). Source: Ministry of
Transport, Public Works and Water Management.
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