An interesting study which showed the most elderly drivers to be among the safest, and Millenials, in general, to be the highest-risk. This contradicts the often-believed idea that 16-18 year-olds and very elderly drivers are the highest risks.

https://963kklz.com/2024/07/01/elder...afest-drivers/

New Study Reveals Elderly Drivers Are Actually The Safest

WENDY RUSH
Updated Jul 10, 2024 2:24 PM PDT



Some people say elderly drivers can be a hazard. But maybe it’s the rest of us who are actually
bringing that to our roads.

Daisy-Daisy via Getty Images

Alright, it looks like we all have to officially stop complaining about the old lady driving too slow on the freeway. Because a new study just landed her age group at the top of the list of safest drivers on the road. And as much as we'd love to say the youngest drivers are the worst, there's a new study that disagrees.

Personal injury law specialists John Foy & Associates recently analyzed some data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). They specifically looked at 2022 and the number of drivers involved in crashes by different age groups. Then they ranked drivers (per 1 million population) from each generation that were involved in crashes.

The Safest Drivers Broken Down By Age Group

What the study revealed with this information is which age groups were, collectively, the worst and best drivers on the road. Some of these results actually surprised us.

First off is what we already mentioned. The study revealed that the safest drivers come from what is called the "Silent Generation". This is anyone born between 1928 and 1945. Or anyone who, as of 2024, is between the ages of approximately 79 and 96. This age group accounted for 13,450 drivers in crashes per 1 million population in 2022. And only 2,681 of those crashes proved to be fatal.

The next-safest age group in the study of safest drivers was the Baby Boomers. Or anyone born between 1946 and 1965 (approximately 59 to 78 years old, as of 2024). This age group accounted for 22,509 drivers in crashes per 1 million population in 2022. With 11,207 if those crashes being fatal.

There's an obvious pattern so far in the study of safest drivers by age group. And the pattern isn't broken yet with the third-safest. Which, according to the study by John Foy & Associates, is Generation X. That is anyone born between 1966 and 1980. Or anyone who is, as of 2024, approximately 44 to 58 years of age. This age group tallied up 36,799 drivers in crashes per 1 million population. With 13,953 of those proving to be fatal.

Here's where the pattern breaks. The fourth safest drivers on the road by age group is Generation Z, according to the study. A Gen Z'er is anyone born between 1997 and 2012, who would be approximately 12 to 27 years old as of 2024. Though, let's hope those under 16 aren't actually driving out there. This age group came right behind Gen X. They accounted for 38,221 drivers in crashes per 1 million population. With 11,490 of those crashes being fatal.

The Least Safest Drivers On The Road In 2024

According to this study, the prize for the least safest drivers on the road goes to Millennials. These are our 28 to 43 year-olds (depending on month of birth) who were born between 1981 and 1996. And this wasn't a close race. According to this study, these guys had a shocking 50,291 drivers in crashes per 1 million population. With 18,816 fatalities in those crashes.

The moral of the story? Maybe a little more patience is due to our older drivers who might be driving a little too slowly for our taste. They're actually helping keep us safer on those roads.

 

The flaw with this study is it doesn't seem to account for the percent of each cohort that drives.

Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers would be driving fewer miles per person than a Millennial or Gen Xer. Gen Z is also driving less than Millennials.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this study, created by a personal injury law firm, wouldn't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny.

As @FrankReynoldsCPA correctly notes, accidents per million of population is a very different metric than accidents per million of population who actively drive in each age group. I'd bet that this supposedly safest segment has a very small percentage of people who are active drivers, so all of those non-driving octagenarians, nonagenarians and centenarians and so on who had their keys taken away from them years ago by their concerned families are actively juicing the numbers because if you aren't driving then you aren't crashing. I'd bet that on a normalized basis these seniors have a much worse score relative to most other age groups.

 

I'd say senior drivers create the most road rage surrounding them. That in itself has probably led to many accidents.

 

Accidents per million who actively drive would be a significant improvement over the study's "accident per million who exist" metric, but still isn't the right one. The gold standard is "accidents per 100,000 miles driven" by the cohort. And as several of you have pointed out, the denominator in that equation is dramatically smaller in the older age group than it is in younger ones, and that has an incredibly dramatic impact on the final statistics.

Case in point: my parents. They're mid/late-70s and the two of them share one car (a Santa Fe Hybrid). They last put gas in it in April, and when I was there this past Sunday, the dash showed 100 miles DTE. So they'll fill it up again in September. Round that up to 2.5 tanks per year. They got this car last fall, to replace the one that was totaled when my mom had her first at-fault accident in over 40 years.

 

Illinois is changing the age when drivers are required to take a driving test when renewing their license from 79 to 87. The change has been considered for years and just passed, effective in 2026.

 

LOL - performing a study based on existing population in that age group rather than actual drivers is a complete joke, because it counts all of the folks who don't drive (whether they ever drove, or just stopped driving).

By that metric, well then the under 16 age group is far and away the safest group of drivers out there!!

Yay for statistics manipulation!

 

👍

 

This is a great example of statistics being manipulatable. This data set is meaningless without looking at how many crashes each generation are involved in compared to what percentage of the driving population that generation represents. Case in point, there are obviously WAY more millennials driving than members of the silent generation, so a raw number of crashes vs total population tells us nothing. Of course more crashes in total involve millennials, they are the largest group of drivers on the road.

 

There’s an 82yr old guy who still does track days. He drives a nascar. He’s not the fastest but kudos to him for getting out there!!

Remember being on track last year or year before with 66yr old guy in his Radical.

 

Living in an area with a high number of retirees, I can tell you that a lot seniors scare the hell out of me - running IN TO buildings, driving below the speed limit to the point it impacts traffic flow, erratic lane changes... Every age group has their bad drivers, but you need to compare apples to apples... population density, miles driven, actual numbers of drivers in age groups, severity of accidents by group...

 

I'll take a wild guess that the author hasn't paid auto insurance for a teenage son.

 

Age becomes highly variable when people get over 70-75 I have found. I know people in their 90s that seem like they are 60, and people who are 70 who seem like they are 95.

 

HAHA! Probably not! My two boys paid their own and luckily never had to use it!

 

The town i went to college in was also a very big retirement community due to the excellent weather. When the elderly snowbirds arrived in the winter, the roads turned into a nightmare.