TAB 2

CTV & CEO Barclay, MISREPRESENTED OLDER CANADIANS.

The fact that seniors are safe drivers, has now been reinforced by the powerful United States Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. On February 21st., 2014, Joan Lowry of Associated Press issued a News

Release in Washington D.C. by the United States Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, stating that they were wrong in thinking that an older population would lead to more accidents, and just the reverse has happened. Their reasons given were; because vehicles are getting safer and seniors are generally getting healthier, the institute said.

The marked shift began taking hold in the mid-1990s and indicates that growing ranks of aging drivers as baby boomers head into their retirement years are not making US roads deadlier.

Since 1997, older drivers have enjoyed large declines as measured by both fatal crash rates per driver and per vehicle miles driven than middle-age drivers, defined in the study ages 35 to 54.

From 1997 to 2012 fatal crash rates per licensed driver fell 42% for older drivers and 30% for middle-age ones, the study found. Looking at vehicle miles travelled, fatal rates fell 39% for older drivers and 26% for middle-age ones from 1995 to 2008.
The greatest rate of decline was among drivers age 80 and over, nearly twice that of middle age drivers and drivers 70 to 74.
“This should help ease fears that aging baby boomers are a safety threat”, said Anne McCartt, the institute’s senior vice president and co-author of the study.

Alan Pisarski, author of the authoritative
“Commuting in America” series, who reports on driving trends states that,

“”The main point is that these 70-80 year olds are really different than their
predecessors. They learned to drive in a very different era. They are far more comfortable driving in freeway situations.
This matters immensely for the future because we are seeing dramatic increases in older workers staying in the labor force and continuing to work and commute well past 65”.
 
 
 

Unfortunately there are those who continue to promote the outdated 2001 “high crash risk” data.

A study dated February 4, 2014. “OLDER DRIVERS DO NOT HAVE A HIGH CRASH RISK- A REPLICATION OF LOW MILEAGE BIAS”, challenges old data.
The study of authors, Langford J, Methorst R, Hakamies-Blomqvist L., found that most drivers aged 75 years and older and above were safer than younger age groups.

February 22, 2020