Accredited official statistics

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: older driver factsheet, 2023

Published 26 September 2024

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.

1. Things you need to to know

This factsheet presents trends from 2004 onwards. However, grouped data for years from 2019 to 2023 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.

1.1 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.

1.2 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 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).

2. Main findings

Overall, in 2023, around a quarter of all car drivers killed were older drivers, with 11% of all casualties in car collisions being in collisions involving older drivers.

Between 2004 and 2023:

• Killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver increased from 3,082 to 3,451, a rise of 12%

• KSI casualties in collisions involving other aged car drivers decreased from 37,023 to 20,397, a fall of 45%

Averaged over the period 2019 to 2023:

• 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

• 27% 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

• 53% of KSI casualties from older car driver collisions occurred on rural roads, compared to 42% for other aged car drivers

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

• the most common contributory factor allocated to vehicles driven by an 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’

3. Introduction

3.1 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:2023

3.2 Older car drivers casualties by severity

Overall older car drivers accounted for around 10% of all casualties in collisions involving cars in 2023, 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 2023 25% of all car driver fatalities were older car drivers.

Table 2 shows that in 2023 20% of all fatalities 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: 2023

	Killed	Serious	Slight	All
Older car driver	122	1,137	3,312	4,571
All car drivers	487	7,331	42,565	50,383
Percentage older car drivers	25	16	8	9

Table 2: Reported casualties by severity, from collisions involving an older car driver compared to collisions involving all car drivers, Great Britain: 2023

	Killed	Serious	Slight	All
From collisions involving an older car driver	245	3,206	9,802	13,253
From collisions involving all car drivers	1,255	23,017	93,432	117,704
Percentage involving older car drivers	20	14	10	11

4. Casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver

4.1 Casualties by type

Chart 2 and Table 3 show 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 road users)

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 increased from 3,082 to 3,451 in 2023. However, when comparing 2023 to 2022 there has been an increase of 6%.

During 2023, there were:

• 1,259 KSI older car driver casualties, an increase of 7% compared to 2022
• 475 passenger KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver, an increase of 3% compared to 2022

Chart 2: Reported KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver by casualty type, Great Britain: 2004 to 2023

Table 3: Reported KSI casualties by casualty type from collisions involving at least one older car driver, Great Britain: 2004 to 2023

Year	All casualties	Passengers of older car drivers	Older car drivers	Other casualties
2004	3,082	549	1,122	1,411
2005	3,005	533	1,079	1,394
2006	2,868	444	1,042	1,382
2007	2,839	449	968	1,422
2008	2,802	421	997	1,384
2009	2,856	427	998	1,431
2010	2,666	433	971	1,262
2011	3,056	444	1,015	1,597
2012	2,977	443	1,081	1,453
2013	3,051	412	1,057	1,581
2014	3,278	449	1,155	1,674
2015	3,137	447	1,149	1,541
2016	3,256	491	1,110	1,655
2017	3,281	490	1,111	1,680
2018	3,521	490	1,268	1,762
2019	3,406	483	1,208	1,715
2020	2,145	259	772	1,113
2021	2,613	334	930	1,349
2022	3,252	463	1,179	1,610
2023	3,451	475	1,259	1,717

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 2004.

For 2023, older car driver 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 2023 .

For 2023, passenger casualties accounted for 14%, 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 16% of all KSI casualties in 2023.

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
2013	14	35	52
2022	14	36	49
2023	14	36	50

5. Demographics

5.1 Sex and age

Chart 3 and Table 5 show the sex and age breakdown of KSI casualties from a collision involving at least one older car driver between 2019 and 2023.

Between 2019 and 2023, 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.

27% 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: 2019 to 2023

Table 5: Percentage of KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one older car driver, by sex and age, Great Britain: 2019 to 2023

Age	Female	Male
all ages	43%	57%
0 to 16	2%	3%
17 to 24	2%	5%
25 to 49	6%	12%
50 to 69	7%	10%
70 and over	26%	27%

6. Time of day

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 2019 and 2023, Great Britain. (Monday to Friday is the average of the total on each of those days).

Hour of day	Monday to Friday	Saturday	Sunday
00	4	16	17
01	3	9	9
02	2	2	1
03	2	8	6
04	1	3	4
05	4	7	9
06	15	9	8
07	38	26	17
08	74	56	47
09	123	112	46
10	182	177	133
11	212	185	167
12	211	221	195
13	202	160	174
14	229	190	200
15	264	179	183
16	222	144	157
17	170	146	86
18	109	101	94
19	68	60	62
20	31	51	44
21	34	36	31
22	26	33	19
23	11	27	13

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: 2019 to 2023

7. 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 2019 and 2023 53% of KSIs 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 KSIs 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: 2019 to 2023

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.

8. Collision circumstances

8.1 Vehicle movement on the road

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

Between 2019 and 2023 47% of KSIs 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 KSIs 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: 2019 to 2023

Junction	Older car drivers	Other car drivers
Not at junction or within 20 metres	47	48
T, Y or staggered junction	28	27
Crossroads	9	9
Roundabout	5	5
Other junction	5	5
Private drive or entrance	3	2
Mini-roundabout	1	1
Junction - more than 4 arms (not roundabout)	1	1
Slip road	1	1
Unknown	0	0

8.2 Single car collisions

Chart 6 shows older car driver KSI casualties from single and multiple vehicle collisions by casualty type, with a broadly similar trend for each group.

In 2023, 21% of older car driver KSI casualties were in single vehicle collisions.

Chart 6: KSI older car driver casualties from single and multi vehicle collisions Great Britain: 2004 to 2023

9. Factors contributing to collisions

9.1 Contributory factors

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 FSCs (between 2019 and 2023). 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’. Older car drivers were more likely to have factors relating to ‘failure to judge other person’s path or speed’, and ‘illness or disability’ than other car drivers involved in collisions.

Table 8: Percentage of cars in FSCs driven by a older car driver with specific contributory factors assigned, compared to the equivalent percentage for other aged car drivers, Great Britain: 2019 to 2023

Contributory Factor	Older car drivers	Other car drivers
Driver or rider failed to look properly	28	19
Driver or rider failed to judge other person`s path or speed	13	8
Driver or rider illness or disability, mental or physical	11	2
Loss of control	10	7
Poor turn or manoeuvre	8	6
Driver or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry	8	11
Dazzling sun	4	2
Other	3	1
Swerved	2	2
Driver or rider nervous, uncertain or panic	2	1

10. 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 2023 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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13. Contact details

Road safety statistics

Email roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk