Page 3701 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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driven by family or friends; and 7,000 people use taxis. Overwhelmingly, driving cars and walking seem to be the main methods by which our older people choose to pursue their mobility.
What are the issues surrounding these methods and what can be done about them? Observations made by Mr Anderson were particularly revealing. He believes that older drivers are safer than previously believed and are keeping themselves safe on the roads by determining when and where they drive. Studies carried out by the Monash University Accident Research Centre indicated that most older drivers were not considered a large road safety issue, but the number of older drivers is increasing with the number of baby boomers who grew up with a car and keep driving.
Interestingly, in public health terms, older drivers are not nearly as dangerous as the younger drivers. Associate Professor Drew Richardson of the NRMA ACT believes that, in individual terms, people over 75 are just as likely to be involved in a crash as 17 to 24-year-olds. Ironically, by preventing those over 85 years from driving, we would, in fact, only reduce serious injuries by about four per cent—not insignificant, but it needs to be kept in perspective.
Fatigue is a significant contributor to road trauma. Most drivers will admit to becoming tired while driving, not just older drivers. Yet many older drivers are on several forms of medication and this can certainly compound the problem. Furthermore, if older drivers get involved in a serious accident, they may have more problems because they are more susceptible to broken bones.
Mr Jim Langford, a senior research fellow at the Monash University research centre, cited some indicative figures on car crashes involving older drivers. According to Mr Langford, two in three crashes are in urban areas, and one in two are at intersections. There are considerably fewer long-distance crashes involving older drivers than short-distance ones. Short-distance travellers are more likely to use the urban road network, yet most older driver fatalities occur on urban roads. Usually lack of fitness is not a problem for older drivers. However, crashes involving older drivers are mainly due to frailty of some description.
The frailty of older drivers is believed to be a significant factor in this debate. Mr Brownsdon contends that the message of frailty is not getting through to the community. He says a large number of older drivers have cars over 10 years old, and the health and fitness of drivers has not been seriously taken into account as a safety feature to date. It is interesting that 80 per cent of the older population believe their doctor will let them know when they are not fit to drive and, perhaps mistakenly, many older people think they are not fit to walk but they are still fit to drive.
Walking, as was seen in the figures I cited previously, is in a clear second place when it comes to seniors’ mobility. It is widely seen as an important transport method. However, there are problems that are associated with walking. For instance, older people have a tendency to get intimidated when crossing the road and can be limited by the lack of footpaths provided in their local area.
It is also worth noting that ACTION buses are only being used by about six per cent of the population. Older people are not using buses, which is particularly unfortunate
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