Accredited official statistics

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: older driver factsheet, 2021

Published 24 November 2022

This factsheet gives an overview and key statistics on older car drivers involved in road collisions in Great Britain as reported by the police, including the main trends and characteristics of collisions. Older car drivers are a notable set of road users because of the ageing population and also the increase in older driving licence holders.

This factsheet defines an older driver as someone aged over 70 years old.

Things you need to to know

This factsheet presents trends from 2004 onwards. However, grouped data for years from 2016 to 2021 is used widely in order to allow sufficiently robust analysis by age, sex and other variables. Comparisons are made between collisions involving older drivers and those involving drivers of other ages, though there will be some overlap as a collision could involve car drivers of different ages.

Severity adjustment

The figures in this release for injured casualties are based on adjusting figures reported by the police to take account of changes in the reporting of injury severity by some police forces in recent years. These adjusted figures can reliably be used to compare trends over time across the country. More details can be found in our severity adjustments guidance.

Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)

Recent trends in reported road casualties have begun to normalise after the national restrictions implemented from March 2020 onwards following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including periods of lockdown during 2021. Many of the trends discussed during this factsheet may see the impact of COVID-19 restrictions. More details about the coronavirus restrictions can be found in Coronavirus: a history of English lockdown laws (England only).

Main findings

Overall, in 2021, around a fifth of all car drivers killed were older drivers, with around 12% of all killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties in car collisions being in collisions involving older drivers.

Between 2004 and 2021:

• KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver decreased from 3,176 to 2,653, a fall of 16%

• KSI casualties in collisions involving other aged car drivers decreased from 38,151 to 18,872, a fall of 51%

Averaged over the period 2016 to 2021:

• 57% of KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver were male. This compares to 67% for KSI casualties from collisions involving other aged car drivers

• 26% of KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver were male and aged over 70 years old

• KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver peak between 10am and 4pm

• 54% of KSI casualties from older driver collisions occurred on rural roads, compared to 42% for other aged car drivers

• 47% of KSI casualties from older driver collisions occurred not at a junction or within 20 metres, compared to 48% of KSIs for other aged car driver collisions

• the most common contributory factor allocated to vehicles driven by a older car driver involved in fatal or serious collisions (FSC) was ‘driver failed to look properly’ followed by ‘driver failed to judge another person’s path or speed’

Introduction

Car driver casualty rates

Chart 1 shows KSI car driver casualties per billion miles driven, by age and sex. There is an increased casualty rate for those aged over 70 years old, particularly for those aged over 80 years old.

Chart 1: KSI car driver casualties per billion miles driven, by age and sex, Great Britain:2021^{[footnote 1]}

Casualties in older car driver collisions by severity

Overall older car drivers accounted for around 10% of all casualties in collisions involving cars in 2021, though this proportion increases with casualty severity (as older drivers are more likely to be killed in collisions in which they are injured than drivers of other ages). In this factsheet we focus largely on KSI casualties to show patterns as the number of fatalities is relatively small.

Table 1 shows that in 2021 21% of all car driver fatalities were older car drivers.

Table 2 shows that in 2021 16% of all fatalities from collisions involving a car driver were from a collision involving at least one older car driver.

Table 1: Reported driver casualties by severity, older car driver casualties compared to all car driver casualties, Great Britain:2021

	Killed	Serious	Slight	All
Older car driver	103	841	2,825	3,769
All car drivers	482	6,563	42,736	49,781
Percentage older car driver	21	13	7	8

Table 2: Reported casualties by severity, from collisions involving an older car driver compared to collisions involving all car drivers, Great Britain:2021

	Killed	Serious	Slight	All
From collisions involving an older car driver	197	2,456	8,464	11,117
From collisions involving all car drivers	1,216	20,989	90,621	112,826
Percentage involving older drivers	16	12	9	10

Casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver

Casualties by type

Chart 2 shows KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver, by casualty type which includes:

• the older driver themselves
• the passengers of the cars driven by older drivers
• all other casualties (including drivers and passenger of other vehicles, or other road users for example pedestrians)

There was a small increase in casualty numbers in all casualty types until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. COVID-19 caused a drop in casualty numbers however, the increase seen recently shows casualty numbers beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Since 2004 KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver decreased from 3,176 to 2,653 (16%). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic recovery when comparing 2021 to 2020 there has been an increase of 22%.

During 2021, there were:

• 944 KSI older car driver casualties, an increase of 20% compared to 2020.
• 338 passenger KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver, an increase of 29% compared to 2020.

Chart 2: Reported KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver by casualty type, Great Britain: 2004 to 2021

Table 3: Reported KSI casualties by casualty type from collisions involving at least one older car driver, Great Britain: 2004 to 2021

Year	All casualties	Passengers of older car drivers	Older car drivers	Other casualties
2004	3,176	566	1,159	1,451
2005	3,100	548	1,116	1,436
2006	2,959	459	1,078	1,422
2007	2,928	464	1,002	1,462
2008	2,886	433	1,029	1,423
2009	2,939	439	1,030	1,471
2010	2,748	445	1,002	1,301
2011	3,141	455	1,046	1,639
2012	3,062	455	1,111	1,495
2013	3,135	423	1,088	1,624
2014	3,365	461	1,186	1,718
2015	3,219	458	1,180	1,581
2016	3,339	502	1,139	1,698
2017	3,359	500	1,139	1,720
2018	3,602	501	1,298	1,804
2019	3,466	490	1,230	1,747
2020	2,178	263	784	1,131
2021	2,653	338	944	1,371

Table 4 shows the proportion of each casualty type for the total KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver. This shows how the proportion of casualties being the passenger of the car has fallen, and the proportion of the casualty being the driver remained stable, whereas the proportion of other casualties has increased since 2021.

For 2021, older car driver casualties accounted for 36% of all KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver. By comparison, for collisions involving other aged car drivers, driver casualties accounted for 32% of all KSI casualties in 2021.

For 2021, passenger casualties of older drivers accounted for 13%, of all KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver. By comparison, for collisions involving other aged car drivers, passenger KSI casualties accounted for 15% of all KSI casualties in 2021.

Table 4: Proportion of all KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver by casualty type, Great Britain

Year	Passengers of older car drivers	Older car drivers	Other casualties
2004	18	36	46
2011	14	33	52
2020	12	36	52
2021	13	36	52

Sex and age comparisons

Chart 3 shows the sex and age breakdown of KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver between 2016 and 2021.

Between 2016 and 2021, 57% of KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver were male and 43% were female. This compares to 67% of males and 33% of females for KSI casualties from collisions involving other aged car drivers.

26% of KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver were male and over 70 years old. 26% of casualties were female and over 70 years old.

Chart 3: Percentage of KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver, by sex and age, Great Britain: 2016 to 2021

Table 5: Percentage of KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver, by sex and age, Great Britain: 2016 to 2021

Age	Female	Male
0 to 16	2%	3%
17 to 24	2%	5%
25 to 49	6%	12%
50 to 69	7%	10%
70 and above	26%	26%
All Ages	43%	57%

Time of day of collisions

Table 6 shows the total KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver by hour of day and day of the week. The totals for the weekdays (Monday to Friday) have been averaged. KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver have a peak on weekdays from 10am to 4pm. On the weekends there is a peak between 11am and 4pm, however, overall casualty numbers at the weekend are lower than during the week.

Table 6: Total KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver by hour of the day and day of the week, between 2016 and 2021, Great Britain

Hour of day	Monday to Friday	Saturday	Sunday
00	5	16	18
01	4	5	17
02	2	12	8
03	4	6	5
04	1	1	8
05	5	8	10
06	20	11	6
07	48	29	29
08	95	60	65
09	155	121	94
10	216	201	166
11	244	236	201
12	250	268	253
13	257	210	209
14	286	219	265
15	323	207	237
16	280	217	190
17	203	175	129
18	143	138	122
19	93	104	88
20	48	71	65
21	43	40	36
22	38	43	24
23	15	46	16

Table 6 note: Monday to Friday is the average of the total on each of those days.

Chart 4 puts these KSI casualty numbers into context by displaying them as a proportion of all KSI casualties from collisions involving any car driver.

KSIs casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver make up a much higher proportion of all KSI casualties during the day, specifically between 10am and 3pm. It is worth noting that the proportion of casualties are very low in the early hours of the morning and late in the evening.

Chart 4: Proportion of KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver out of all collisions involving a car driver by hour of day and day of week, Great Britain: 2016 to 2021

Type of road

Chart 5 looks at the where the collisions according to rural or urban road classification, involving at least one older car driver, occur.

Between 2016 and 2021 54% of KSI’s in collisions involving at least one older car driver occurred on rural roads and 44% occurred on urban roads.

In comparison for other aged car drivers 42% of KSI’s occurred on rural roads and 54% occurred on urban roads.

Chart 5: Percentage of KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver and from collisions involving at least one other aged car driver, by urban rural classification, Great Britain: 2016 to 2021

Urban roads are those within an area of population of 10,000 or more. The definition is based on the 2001 Communities and Local Government definition of Urban Settlements. Roads outside these areas will be classified as Rural. More information is available in the user guide to urban and rural area definitions (PDF, 271KB).

Vehicle movement on the road

Table 7 displays the percentage of KSI’s in collisions involving at least one older car driver which occur at different junction types.

Between 2016 and 2021 47% of KSI’s in older car driver collisions occurred not at junction or within 20 metres. This is similar to collisions involving other aged car drivers where 48% of KSI’s in collisions occurred not at junction or within 20 metres.

Table 7: Percentage of KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver by severity and junction detail where the collision occurred, Great Britain: 2016 to 2021

Junction	Older car drivers	Other car drivers
Not at junction or within 20 metres	47	48
T, Y or staggered junction	30	28
Crossroads	9	9
Roundabout	5	5
Other junction	4	4
Private drive or entrance	3	3
Slip road	1	1
Mini-roundabout	1	1
Junction - more than 4 arms (not roundabout)	1	1
Unknown	0	0

Contributory factors in collisions

Contributory factors provide an insight into how and why collisions occur. The factors are largely subjective as they reflect the opinion of the reporting police officer. They are assigned quickly at the occurrence of the collision and often without extensive investigations and so should be interpreted with caution. They are likely to be affected in part by preconceptions police officers have of certain vehicle groups. A maximum of 6 factors can be recorded for each collision. Further information is available in the guide to contributory factors.

Table 8 shows the 10 most common contributory factors that have been allocated to older car drivers that were involved in FSC’s (between 2016 and 2021). This is displayed as a proportion of all vehicles driven by older car drivers. These proportions are contrasted to the equivalent figures for vehicles driven by other aged car drivers.

The most common contributory factors assigned to both older car drivers and other car drivers was ‘failed to look properly’.

Where older car drivers differ is that second most common factor was ‘driver failed to judge other person’s path or speed’ and the third was ‘driver illness or disability, mental or physical’. For other car drivers these contributory factors are ranked third and joint seventh respectively.

Table 8:Percentage of cars in FSC’s driven by a older car driver with specific contributory factors assigned, compared to the equivalent percentage for other aged car drivers, Great Britain: 2016 to 2021

Contributory Factor	Older car drivers	Other car drivers
Driver or rider failed to look properly	30	22
Driver or rider failed to judge other person`s path or speed	14	10
Driver or rider illness or disability, mental or physical	11	2
Loss of control	10	8
Poor turn or manoeuvre	10	7
Drive or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry	7	11
Dazzling sun	4	2
Swerved	3	2
Driver or rider nervous, uncertain or panic	2	1
Fatigue	2	1

Further information

Further information on road collisions and casualties can be found in Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain.

Published tables on casualties in reported road collisions are available.

Non-fatal casualties since 2016 have been affected by a large number of police forces changing their reporting systems which has had a large impact on the classification of injuries recorded. Further details of the adjustment for this are in the 2021 annual report.

Road collisions and safety statistics guidance including accompanying notes and definitions are available.

Personal travel statistics within Great Britain covering English residents, including mileage by car drivers of different ages, is available from the National Travel Survey.

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1. Rates are calculated using car driver mileage from the National Travel Survey (for England) scaled to Great Britain population by age group and sex. Figures are miles recorded for personal travel where the mode of travel was car or van driver. ↩