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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Vehicle crashworthiness and the older motorist | | Author(s) | Andrew Morris, Ruth Welsh, Richard Frampton |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 23, part 4, July 2003 |
| Pages | pp 395-410 |
| Keywords | Injuries ; Age groups [elderly] ; Drivers accidents ; Private cars ; Vehicle design ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | The relationship is examined between age and the injury outcomes for drivers wearing seat-belts in road vehicle crashes in the United Kingdom. The sample of 1,541 drivers was divided into three age groups: 889 drivers aged 17-39 (young drivers); 515 aged 40-64 (middle-aged); and 137 aged 65-84 (older drivers). Both frontal and side impact crashes in which vehicles sustained sufficient damage to be towed away from the scene are considered. In-depth information obtained from examinations of the crashed vehicles was combined with clinical data obtained from hospitals to throw light on the mechanisms that led to the injuries. In crashes of approximately equal severity, older drivers were significantly more likely than middle-aged and young drivers to be fatally injured or to sustain more chest injuries in both frontal and side impact crashes. As the number of older car users will increase rapidly in most OECD countries in the coming decades, the results suggest that vehicle re-designs are required, including in-vehicle crashworthiness systems, to take into account older people's relatively low tolerance of crash impacts. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030721201 A |
| Classmark | CU: BB: OPD: O3: OF: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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