Are older drivers really as dangerous on the roads as we are led to believe?

Are older drivers really as dangerous on the roads as we are led to believe? The debate is a hot issue in road safety circles -- and as the 'greying' population in Western countries continues to grow, so too does the concern.

By 2030, the proportion of Australian licensed drivers aged over 65 will have increased from 13 per cent in 2000 to 22 per cent. And while research indicates older drivers are generally cautious and safe behind the wheel, they are also more likely to be seriously injured or killed in crashes per head of population and distance travelled.

The Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) is leading the world in investigating the driving skills and behaviours of older drivers. The expert team, which includes Professor Brian Fildes, Dr Judith Charlton, Mr Jim Langford, Dr Jennie Oxley, Ms Sjaanie Koppel and Ms Nicky Pronk, takes a multi-faceted approach by looking at how changes in cognition and perception affect driving, developing new ways to assess fitness to drive, improving vehicle safety and road infrastructure, and considering the broader concern of safe mobility for former drivers.

Senior research fellow Dr Charlton says the weight of evidence suggests older drivers are not risky drivers but rather are potentially more at risk. "Older people are more vulnerable in a crash because their physical frailty predisposes them to more serious injury and death," she says.

One of MUARC's tasks has been to test the widely held assumption that older drivers self-regulate by avoiding certain situations while driving. A survey of 656 current drivers and 29 former drivers from across Victoria revealed some had stopped due to illness, safety concerns or crash involvement, while others were influenced by the concerns of family and doctors, as well as the fact that they no longer enjoyed driving.

Dr Charlton says the study revealed that self-regulating drivers often drove shorter distances and less often and avoided driving in the wet, at night and in busy traffic.

The study also identified drivers who perhaps should have been modifying their driving but were not. As a result, MUARC has recommended campaigns to increase public awareness of the conditions that impact on driving, as well as encourage self-regulation.

Currently, relicensing requirements for older drivers vary across Australian jurisdictions, although most have some form of age-based reassessment. However, this system fails to take into account that vast individual differences can and do exist, Dr Charlton says. "Also, some jurisdictions, such as Victoria, have no age-based reassessment requirements and rely on doctors or family members to refer drivers who are a potential safety risk," she says.

Family doctors are often the first to raise concerns about their patients' driving ability but then discover there is no objective test on which to base their judgements.

To address this issue, VicRoads commissioned MUARC in 2002 to develop a quick referral instrument to help identify if a driver poses a safety risk. The test, Health Screen for Drivers (HSD), involves a visual-spatial test, a mental processing task, perceptions about driving performance and the practitioner's rating of the driver's confusion level and slowness.

HSD, which is awaiting evaluation, is designed so that drivers who do not meet the test's pass criteria would be referred to the licensing authority and would then need to undergo a more detailed assessment regarding their licence status.

"It is important that older members of society realise this process is not about trying to get them off the road - that is a devastating prospect for many people," Dr Charlton says. "Rather, it is about ensuring the best and safest outcome for all road users."

For further information, view the full study online or visit the MUARC website. Contact Dr Judith Charlton on +61 3 9905 1903 or email [email protected].