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night or in bad weather conditions. On the other hand, it is also well known that older
drivers have an increased rate of fatal accidents compared with middle-aged drivers.
The decrease of capabilities of older drivers also contributes to the fact that older
drivers are more often involved in traffic accidents then middle-aged drivers if their
number of accidents is related to their traffic exposure. In Germany in 2006, the
number of fatalities in the group of people over 65 years was 7.3 per 100,000
inhabitants compared with 6.2 in the whole population but it was still much lower than
18.4 in the group 18-20 years.
Another fact is that older drivers suffer more from accidents than younger persons
due to their decreased muscular strength, the reduced stability of their organs and body
structure and the longer time they need to recover.
Figure 4.
Problems of older drivers in perception, cognition and action (Schlag, 2008)
Measures to reduce fatal accidents.
Previously, mainly so-called passive measures
have been provided in cars, such as having a body structure containing a safety cell and
a crash zone for the driver and passengers, safety belts, head rests, airbags, side-impact
protection, and a body structure which is compatible with the structure of potential
crash objects including pedestrians. In future, additional active systems will be
introduced. It is expected that they will have a great potential of avoiding accidents or
mitigating the impact of an accident. For example, several car manufacturers have
found that by introducing electronic stability control systems (ESC), the number of
accidents caused by loss of vehicle stability was reduced by 40-50%.
The goal, an Integrated Safety System.
Many other active safety systems are now
under development, mainly concerning the longitudinal and lateral control of the
vehicle. Communication between one car and another one and from car to
infrastructure to exchange information which might not be available in a single car will
