Resources and Tools for Older Driver Safety and Transitioning

On April 11, Essie Wagner, older driver program analyst for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Jacob Nelson, director of traffic safety policy & research at AAA; and Lisa Tucker, project coordinator/training & technical assistance specialist at NCST, joined together to present on Resources and Tools for Older Driver Safety and Transitioning. An MP3 podcast, transcript, and copy of the presentation are available at the NCST site. The presentation took place at the Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities, and it identifies new tools aimed at older drivers, their families, and health and medical professionals; a discussion of the effectiveness of the tools; and strategies for their use with older drivers.

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• Identifying Older Drivers at Risk of Crashes (nlm.nih.gov)

Driving Transitions Education Program

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the American Society on Aging have developed the Driving Transitions Education Program, offering tips and tools to provide practitioners the confidence to act as consultants to families or approach the older driver in useful discussion about driving transitions. This free, downloadable resource has prepared scripts for presentations to community groups, staff, older adults and caregivers, as well as exercises and resource lists.

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GAO: Foresight Issues Challenge DOT on Technology Trends

Trends for certain vulnerable road-user groups point to heightened safety challenges in the years ahead, and DOT is taking some steps to address these. By 2025, the annual number of road fatalities for older drivers may be double what it was in 2005. The main reason for the projected increase is that the first members of the baby boom generation will reach their 65th birthday in 2011, and the number and percentage of Americans older than 65 will steadily increase for several years. In response to this trend, DOT is examining various issues relevant to older drivers (see Band and Perel 2007).

Pedestrian Safety

Pedestrian safety is a key focus worldwide. Data indicate that, annually: in the European Union about 8,000 pedestrians and cyclists are killed and about 300,000 injured; in North America approximately 5,000 pedestrians are killed and 85,000 injured; in Japan approximately 3,300 pedestrians and cyclists are killed and 27,000 seriously injured; and in South Korea around 3,600 pedestrians are killed and 90,000 injured. The U.S. participated in the International Harmonized Research Activities (IHRA) Pedestrian Safety Working Group (IHRA-PS-WG) as it began to investigate and analyze the latest pedestrian accident data from IHRA member countries in 2001 and continued on to prepare harmonized pedestrian-passenger vehicle test procedures. Following this, separate adult and child head form tests were presented to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) at the end of 2002. Initial leg form tests were proposed in 2004. Since then, the U.S. has been working with representatives from WP.29 and IHRA to refine these testing procedures for inclusion in the GTR. This GTR is expected to improve pedestrian safety by requiring vehicle hoods and bumpers to absorb energy more efficiently when impacted in a 40 kilometer per hour (km/h) vehicle-to-pedestrian impact. These incidents account for more than 75 percent of the pedestrian-injured accidents (AIS 1+) reported by IHRA/PS. The GTR consists of two sets of performance criteria applying to: (a) The hood top and fenders; and (b) the front bumper. Test procedures have been developed using sub-system impacts for adult and child head protection and adult leg protection. In anticipation of the vote to establish a GTR for pedestrian safety, NHTSA is requesting comment from all interested parties.

State Teams Selected for NHTSA Older Driver Safety Project

The National Center for Senior Transportation (NCST) selected six state teams to participate in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)/Federal Transit Administration (FTA) project to establish and implement statewide older driver safety plans. The teams are from:

• Florida,
• Georgia,
• Minnesota,
• Nebraska,
• North Carolina, and
• Tennessee.

The states will each receive $5,000 to assist in plan implementation, and two states will be awarded an additional $6,000 each to further their efforts.

Each team consists of state government agencies and organizations that represent aging; driver licensing; law enforcement; highway safety; public health; and the state’s department of transportation, both roadways and transit. The goal of such a coalition is to produce a comprehensive and unified approach to senior transportation. The teams will gather in Dallas, Texas on September 16 and 17, and each team will work collaboratively to develop an action plan for their state to improve older driver safety and connections with alternative forms of transportation. While much of the meeting time will be spent in plan development, participants will be given the opportunity to dialogue with team members from other states in order to share information and promising practices in improving the transportation mobility of older adults.