A new South Australian safety campaign, ‘Don’t Stop Driving By Accident’, will focus on the over-representation of older drivers in serious injuries and lives lost in accidents.
Statistics show that the over-70s make up 13% of the population, yet account for 23% of lives lost on SA roads.
In the period 2015-2019, on average there were 23 lives lost and 94 serious injuries amongst senior road users each year.
Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott said that although older drivers tend to be more cautious, exhibit less undesirable driving behaviour and are involved in fewer crashes, the crashes they are involved in often have more serious consequences.
“Older road users can be experiencing cognitive decline, reduced physical capability or responsiveness, fragility and other medical challenges, all of which compound the inherent dangers of using the road,” Assistant Commissioner Parrott said. “We want to empower older drivers and their families to talk about reducing the risks of driving if it’s becoming more stressful, more scary and therefore, less safe.”
He said the campaign had been developed with the utmost respect for older South Australians, and with the understanding that independence is an important part of an older person’s lifestyle.
SA’s peak body representing older people, Council on the Aging (COTA) was consulted in the development of the campaign and is supportive of the campaign’s approach.
“Older people are used to making big decisions,” said COTA Chief Executive, Jane Mussared. “Reviewing our driving and reducing, changing or stopping driving is one of those big decisions.”
The campaign addressed the scenarios that can cause additional stress to older drivers such as driving at night, driving in bad weather or driving on busier roads.
It asks older people, their family members and their medical carers to consider avoiding these high-risk situations or to consider alternative modes of transport. GPs will also be encouraged to start conversations with their older patients.
Of course, grey nomads – particularly those in the older age group – are already used to having their driving skills analysed, particularly when they are driving large rigs. And it’s not just being done by opinionated figures in the media who may be calling for the introduction of mandatory towing licences.
Some older travellers will have already had potentially awkward conversations with concerned children or other family members about whether they are physically and mentally equipped to take a large caravan or motorhome on an extended trip around Australia.
The South Australian safety campaign will see a burst of TV, print, radio, and outdoor advertising activity until the end of March.
Another article where ‘stats never lie but liars use stats’ if the arguments projected here looked at under 24’s my take on stats is that no one should drive until they are 25min. An important factor here is that over 70’s are much more frail and may die resulting from an accident that younger humans will pull through, that is a fact and should have been examined by the journalist rather than a puff piece with sensationalist headline. From the same article:
“Older drivers are much less less likely to be involved in a serious casualty crash than younger drivers. For 16-24 year old drivers/riders the rate of involvement in a fatal or serious injury crash was 11.4 per 10,000 licence holders per year”
If I was writing the above article maybe the headline “Younger drivers are shit, should they be chucked off the roads?”
Dead Right,love the comment
Yes older drivers are dying more because they are being killed by the younger and impatient drivers
What is common sense again? Discouraged from kindergarten.
As the oldest member of my family I would like to impart my knowledge and experience gained over 78 yrs. Good luck with that!
I think that in general a lot of peoples driving these days is fairly ordinary, regardless of age.
Everyone is in such a hurry.
Yes there are a lot of young hoons around doing the wrong thing.
On the other hand is it any wonder there are so many caravan accidents when people in there 70’s insist on towing a 20ft+ caravan in wet, extremely windy weather just because ”they have to be at a certain place 600kms away tomorrow?”
you apparently don’t know much about caravaning we Oldies 70+ don’t have to be anywhere 600k away tomorrow it’s the younger ones that always seem to be in a hurry
I agree with Malcolm we are happy with 300km’s a day. Gives more time for shopping and sightseeing plus we don’t have to travel at 100kms per hour.
We’ve heard plenty of retired folk at happy hours say that they ”have to drive 600km tomorrow”. Some of them say that they average 500kms per day. Personally we drive less than 100kms per day & spend time enjoying things along our way. After 12 years of traveling & over 120,000kms covered I do know a little about caravaning.
My apologies for the misunderstanding I and most of my sisters and husbands have been caravaning for combined 30 years and have not heard any greynomad say they average 500 k a day . The exception was when the Governments imposed rules where you had to cross states in 24hours
Its called white line fever & quite a few oldies have got it.
We know a couple that pretty much did the full lap of Australia in 9 weeks.
Some couples go from festival to festival (sometimes only one week apart) covering huge distances to get from one to the other.
You probably know as much about caravaning as any other long term caravaner. Us for example over 30 years caravaning. It has been our experience that very few travel in excess of 200 / 300 klms in a day.
I must go to the wrong Happy hours!! Never heard such conversations and towed 30,000km last year.
Difficult to do 100km a day along the Stuart Highway up the red centre as accommodation is few and far between.
The thought of losing your licence & freedom at an elderly age must be harrowing. (I’m only in my 50s). It should be taken on a case by case situation. Having said that, it may be too late when we realise our reactions are too slow for day to day traffic.
I was never for a caravan licence but having seen many, of all age groups, come into the RV yard I worked at I now think otherwise. So many of all age groups had no idea how to reverse a caravan yet were happy to hook up a 20ft van & head off. It’s the old theory that if you get into trouble you need to know how to get out of it.
I nearly had a accident yesterday and I blame the clear view mirrors. In my opinion they create a blind spot.
How on earth could you say having Clearview Mirrors nearly caused an accident. Clearview have the best coverage of any other Towing mirrors.
I think Joe found that the Clearview mirrors can “hide” other vehicles so users need to be conscious of looking behind them. Drive a truck for a while and it becomes second nature 😉
I take your point however having driven trucks, towed large caravans and used Clearview mirrors for approx 10 years i find it difficult to understand Joe nearly having an accident blaming the Clearview mirrors. It is of course common sense to look behind whilst driving. Just saying