older drivers

[David Corr]

got this off yahoo news this morning. no surprise to us, though. Older Drivers More Dangerous on Left Turns NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older drivers are twice as likely as younger drivers to have a motor vehicle accident when making a left-hand turn, according to US researchers. The investigators also found that older drivers are almost four times more likely to be killed or hospitalized than younger drivers, though the older driver is less likely to have a crash involving drug or alcohol use according to the report published in the June issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Lawrence J. Cook and colleagues from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, wanted to see if older drivers had any crash patterns or characteristics that made them stand out from younger drivers. Cook told Reuters Health, ``The original study was to see if some form of graduated drivers' license like that proposed for teenagers might work with older drivers.'' The researchers collected data on 14,466 drivers older than 69 years of age and 68,706 drivers aged 30 to 39 who had had traffic accidents in Utah between 1992 and 1995. Information was obtained from hospital discharge and statewide police reports. The team studied the dangers of traveling on freeways and driving at night and found that these were not problems for older drivers. ``It turns out that older drivers when they are uncomfortable in these situations avoid them,'' Cook said. However, Cook's group found that older drivers do have an increased probability of crashing at intersections, especially when they are making left-hand turns. Older drivers were more than twice as likely as younger drivers to have accidents when making left-hand turns. ``I think it's the ability to judge how fast traffic is moving,'' Cook said. Also, Cook commented that older drivers are more likely than younger drivers to miss yield signs and stop signs and to run traffic lights. He noted that ``useful field of view,'' the ability to pick out important cues in a cluttered field, diminishes as age increases. ``So in an intersection with signs and other clutter,'' Cook said, ``it might be harder to pick out which signs really matter. Maybe reducing clutter or making bigger signs may help.'' The authors recommend that senior groups work out right-turn-only routes to local places of interest or define routes that have few intersections. SOURCE: Annals of Emergency Medicine 2000;35:585-591.