Older drivers
Older drivers are defined as those aged 75 years and above.
Drivers aged 75 years and over represent approximately four per cent of Victoria’s population and account for five per cent of fatalities and three per cent of serious injuries.
In the context of an ageing population, older road user safety will continue to be a key concern for an increasingly large percentage of the Victorian community. Encouraging drivers to prepare for the effects of ageing on their mobility will be critical to addressing risks for older drivers.
A number of issues are important in improving road safety for older Victorians:
Vehicle safety: The physical fragility of older road users means that they are at a particularly high risk of serious injury or death from crashes. Encouraging the purchase of safe vehicles that offer high levels of occupant protection is an important measure to improve safety for older drivers and their passengers. Older occupant safety can be improved by the correct wearing of seatbelts and by the purchase of vehicles with a high occupant protection rating.
Mobility: It is important that older people maintain their mobility for as long as possible. This can be facilitated through the promotion of self-regulation, encouraging older drivers to avoid driving in conditions in which they feel threatened or uncomfortable.
Mobility for older persons can also be facilitated by expanding alternative local transport services, encouraging older drivers to become familiar with alternative means of travel before they need to stop driving, and assisting older drivers, their families, health professionals and community organisations to assist in a person’s transition from driver to non-driver.
Prescription medication: Some medical conditions are more prevalent with age, and the medications prescribed to deal with these can have an adverse effect on safe driving. Investigating the effects of prescription medication on driving, particularly among older road users, is an important element in developing effective road safety measures.
Increased physical frailty: Once involved in a crash, older road users are at extremely high risk of severe injury because of their greater frailty compared to younger people. Improved detection of visual and cognitive problems will enable better targeted countermeasures to be introduced to reduce the injury risk to older road users.
Infrastructure: Complex traffic situations such as intersections, multi-lane roads and busy, fast moving traffic present challenges for older drivers. Older drivers can experience difficulties interacting with the road environment as current road design practices do not always take into account their specific needs.
It is important for traffic engineers to take into account the changed capabilities of older drivers and avoid standard assumptions about driver capabilities in the design and upgrade of roads and roadsides.
What the strategy will do
Measures to improve older driver safety will include:
- Improving road design and signage, and amending land use planning guidelines to accommodate the needs of older drivers.
- Encouraging older drivers to purchase vehicles with high level crashworthiness ratings.
- Encouraging and educating older drivers to self-regulate driving ability.
- Encouraging older drivers to learn to use alternative forms of transport.
- Developing educational programs which raise awareness of the eventual need to stop driving and how to plan for this.
- Conducting research to increase understanding of the crash risks for older road users associated with visual and/or cognitive impairment, and the effects of medical conditions and medications.
- Improving driver licensing processes, to include cognitive and improved eyesight screening for older drivers considered to be at risk.
- Developing education strategies to address older driver safety issues for drivers, health professionals, family, friends and caregivers.
- Developing and piloting local transport services for older Victorians.
- Providing assistance for older drivers to use alternative transport modes.
