A COMPARISON OF MAINE CRASHES INVOLVING OLDER DRIVERS

Using Maine police crash reports linked to statewide emergency medical service (EMS), hospital inpatient, and death certificate files (CODES), the authors analyzed 1996 crashes for older drivers (age 65 and over) compared to middle-aged (age 25-64) drivers. While less likely to be involved in crashes, Maine older drivers were more likely to be hospitalized or die if they were in a crash; their rate of hospitalization or death per licensed driver was 1.7 times that of middle-aged drivers. While older Maine drivers represented 10% of the drivers involved in crashes, they accounted for 21% of the Maine drivers who were hospitalized or died. Older female drivers were 1.6 times more likely to be hospitalized or die during a crash than were older male drivers. Older drivers were more likely to be involved in crashes at intersections, driveways, making a left turn, or have failure to yield, driver inattention or driver distraction noted on the crash record than middle-aged drivers. While older drivers had a higher proportion of crash involvement in urban areas, the highest proportion of hospitalization or deaths were in crashes in rural areas. Crash locations and driver factors associated with the highest volume of crashes were not always associated with the highest proportion of the hospitalizations or deaths; these findings illustrate the advantage of incorporating linked medical records, inpatient hospitalizations, in the analysis of motor vehicle crashes.