The elderly
The Basic Fact Sheet The Elderly provides accident data for 14 EU countries (EU-15 without Germany) over the period 1997-2006. The fact sheet includes several basic characteristics of fatal road accidents involving the elderly. For example: age and gender, road user type, type of road, day of the week and time of the day or the seasonality.
Due to their greater frailty, the elderly are more likely to be seriously injured in any given accident than younger people. The number of elderly fatalities in the EU-14 countries has decreased over the last decade, but the number in proportion to the total number of fatalities is stagnating.
Fact: More than one third of elderly people dying in road accidents were pedestrians (37,7%).
Fact: Nearly one in five road traffic fatalities is 65 or older.
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Number of elderly fatalities and their proportion on total fatalities in EU-14, 1997-
2006
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Source: CARE Database / EC
Date of query: July 2008
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For information on the elderly, the scientific studies on the magnitude and nature of the safety problem, the contributing accident factors, and the effectiveness of countermeasures, please consult the Older Drivers text on the Knowledge section of the website.
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