According to the Orange County Sherriff’s office an 88-year-old female passed away Friday, July 13, 2012 after the woman’s vehicle collided with a number of other vehicles. The accident happened near the intersection of Crown Valley Parkway and Greenfield Drive, in Laguna Niguel, CA.
Clarice Jordan was involved in the four-car collision close to 12:30 p.m., Orange County Sheriff’s Department authorities said. It is known that she suffered a broken arm in the accident.
Ms. Jordan was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, in Mission Viejo, where she passed away. The Orange County Coroner’s officehas opened an investiation and will be performing an autopsy.
Will Older Drivers Be Involved In More Accidents than Younger Drivers?
Within the next Twenty years the volume of aged motorists, people 70 & over, is anticipated to triple in the USA. As age grows, elderly motorists are usually more conservative on the highway than younger drivers. Many older motorists alter their driving routines, for example to avoid hectic freeways or night-time traveling, to complement their decreasing abilities. Nevertheless, data demonstrate that elderly motorists are more inclined than more youthful ones to become involved with multi-vehicle accidents, especially at intersections.
Research Shows Older Drivers at Increased Risk of Accidents
Research about age-related driving issues indicates that at around 65 years of age motorists encounter a greatly increased chance of becoming linked to a motor vehicle accident. Once a person reaches seventy five years of age, the chance of motorist death grows dramatically. This is because elder motorists tend to be more susceptible to both crash injuries as well as loss of life. Three particular behavior elements bring about these types of statistics:
1. Inadequate judgment in making left-hand turns.
2. Drifting inside the traffic lane.
3. Reduced capability to alter driving in reaction to an unforeseen or rapidly changing condition.
More Elderly Drivers on Road plus Possibly Reduced Driving Capabilities
Worry about the elevated number of elder motorists as well as their possibly reduced driving capabilities, is increasing. Data based on numbers of people killed or injured in traffic accidents, shows that elderly motorists are at an extraordinary high danger for getting involved in deadly accidents.
1995 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Study
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) study of the 1995 Fatal Accident Reporting System data reports that older persons made up:
1. 5% of all individuals injured in traffic accidents.
2. 13% of all traffic deaths.
3. 13% of all motor vehicle occupant deaths.
4. 18% of pedestrian deaths
1997 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Study
In a 1997 NHTSA analysis, seniors composed 9 percent of the population but accounted for 14 percent of all traffic deaths and 17 percent of all pedestrian deaths.
NHTSA’s “Traffic Safety Facts 1997: Older Population” reports that In 1997, greater than 24 million individuals the United States were more than 70 yrs. old.
Representing 9 percent of the population in 1997, the 70-and-older age bracket increased 2.1 times more quickly from 1987 to 1997 compared to total population. Here are more facts from the study:
1. In 1986 older drivers were 7 percent of the licensed motorists; in 1996 these were 19 percent of licensed vehicle operators.
2. Of traffic deaths involving elderly drivers, 82 percent occurred during the day, 71 percent happened on Mondays to Fridays, and 75 percent involved another vehicle.
3. Whenever an accident involved an older driver and a younger driver, the more mature driver was three times as likely as the more youthful driver to be the person injured.
4. In crashes involving elderly motorists who had been turning left when they were struck, older drivers were hit 7 times more frequent than in crashes involving more youthful drivers who were hit while generating left turns.
5. On the basis of estimated annual travel, the death rate for motorists 85 and over is nine times as high as the rate for motorists 25 through 69 years of age.
Danger for Elder Drivers Making Left Hand Turns
Data demonstrate that in two-vehicle fatal accidents concerning an older and a more youthful driver it is 3.1 times more likely that the motor vehicle driven by the more aged person is going to be hit. In 27% of those two-vehicle deadly crashes the elder driver had been turning left.
Accident Data – Younger Drivers and Older Drivers
Motorists more than Sixty five, together with new teen-age motorists, possess the greatest collision rates for each mile driven. An additional NHTSA analysis discovered that based on approximated yearly travel, the death rate for motorists eighty – five or older is nine times as high as the rate for motorists twenty five through sixty nine years of age.