Passengers and other factors affecting the safety of young and older drivers

The specific objective of this study was to assess the relative propensity of young (16 to 20 years old) or older (65 years and older) drivers in Connecticut to be at fault in a traffic crash when they (a) travel at night, (b) travel on different classes of roadway (freeway versus state route versus local road), and (c) travel with different numbers of passengers. For young drivers, the age of the passengers was also considered. The quasi-induced exposure technique was used with police-reported crashes between 1997 and 2001. The results show that young driver risk increases at night, on freeways (and for single-vehicle crashes on local roads), as well as with increased numbers of passengers. For older drivers the risk also increases at night and on freeways (and for single-vehicle crashes on local roads); however, older drivers are less likely to cause crashes when traveling with passengers. These results suggest that the new graduated driver licensing restrictions in place in Connecticut will reduce crashes and that there is the potential to improve young driver safety further by extending these restrictions. Furthermore, similar regulations or education programs aimed at older drivers might improve crash experience for these individuals, especially those older than 75.