« What a Wonderful Country | Main | Regional Minimum Wages »
July 22, 2007
Aged Drivers
So the proposal is that there should be an upper age limit to have a driver's licence.
An upper age limit for drivers could be imposed under plans being considered by the Government.
Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Transport, is to review the existing rules following calls for restrictions on very elderly drivers.
Question 1: is this in fact something being cooked up domestically or are we seeing a "consultation" on something that has already been decided at EU level?
There are 1.5 million drivers over the age of 75 in Britain, including almost 35,000 aged over 90. While older people are known generally for their caution on the road, figures show that almost 11,000 car accidents last year involved drivers in the 70-plus bracket.
Question 2: what do those numbers actually mean? I've been looking around and cannot find accident stats per 1,000 drivers, which is what we would need. Are older drivers more or less likely to have accidents than other groups? Without actually comparing this we cannot know. At present all we know is that x numbers of accidents involve older drivers. But what we want to know is is x higher or lower than other age groups?
Anyone who can find total accidents and total number of drivers for the UK, please drop it in the comments.
July 22, 2007 in Your Tax Money at Work | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c2d3e53ef00e008dd414a8834
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Aged Drivers:
Comments
It's maybe a bit out of date but the National Transport Survey 2005 [1] says there were 33.3 million driving license holders in 2005.
There were 198,735 road accidents involving personal injury in 2005, according to a report on 2005 road casualties from the Dept of Transport [2].
Not sure if these figures are precisely-defined enough for your calculations, but perhaps if not someone can find better ones elsewhere on the dft site.
[1] http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/personal/mainresults/nts2005/nationaltravelsurvey2005
[2] http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtiesmr/roadcasualtiesingreatbritain5110
Tim adds: I found the injury numbers: but from the newspaper it looks like total accident numbers they were using. The number of licences is great: can anyone else supply the total accident numbers?
Posted by: Adam | Jul 22, 2007 10:23:47 AM
"Anyone who can find total accidents and total number of drivers for the UK, please drop it in the comments."
Part of the trouble comes from looking for: road traffic accident statistics.
Instead, try: Road Traffic Collision Statistics Annual Report 2005 (which seems to the the most recent available) as a menu item on:
http://www.psni.police.uk/index/statistics_branch/pg_road_traffic_related_statistics.htm
Or the PDF file of the report:
http://www.psni.police.uk/rtc_report-4.pdf
I'm still not clear about the number of driving licences issued or what significance could be attached to any number produced. Remember that driving licence holders from EU countries and doubtless many more can drive on UK roads.
When I was last in touch with this - admittedly many years ago now - there was a gap of several millions between the number of registered motor vehicles supposedly on the road and data relating to who or what actually owned the said vehicles. Apparently, several millions of vehicles with registered numbers had simply disappeared without trace.
As initial ports of call for this and related topics, it usually makes good sense to try these official sources:
Annual Abstract of Statistics 2007:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/AA2007/AA2007.pdf
Transport Statistics for Great Britain 2006:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/tsgb/2006edition/
Recent issues of the annual publication: Social Trends:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=5748&More=N
Tim adds: Bob, that's getting closer: I found that PSNI table earlier. That's showing again collisions with injuries. We need to find "total accidents" as I'm sure that's what is being used in the paper.
Posted by: Bob B | Jul 22, 2007 10:34:41 AM
Prediction; the government will eventually argue in terms of accidents/mile driven. This has two interesting features:
1) Nobody will know the "miles driven" - the number will be a guess, chosen to help the govt make its case.
2) It's irrelevant, since cutting back on the miles you drive is an entirely rational response to waining powers. However, govts like to treat milage as if it were a given, otherwise they couldn't rant about gas-guzzlers, could they?
Posted by: dearieme | Jul 22, 2007 11:33:16 AM
I'd also want to know the severity of the accidents. My mother had an accident whilst driving over the age of 90. She dented the garage door.
My more general observation is that very old drivers don't go haring around at 80mph, and usually steer clear of wheelies, doughnuts and handbrake turns.
Posted by: Bob Doney | Jul 22, 2007 12:39:18 PM
I'd support a limitation to those whose age can be expressed in two digits.
Posted by: gene berman | Jul 22, 2007 1:52:11 PM
Rent-seeking by Stagecoach anyone?
Posted by: Jock | Jul 22, 2007 1:54:11 PM
