Georgia Injury Law Blog
Has all the focus on teen and elder drivers affected traffic safety for other groups of motorists?That’s the question that Atlanta car accident attorneys are asking this week after Edmunds.com released its analysis of car accident data.Even as the numbers of people dying in auto accidents across the country has been declining over the past decade, there has been an actual increase in the numbers of male car accident deaths in the 51 to 65 age group.
The data comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.According to the analysis, the number of male and female car accident deaths in other age groups has been steadily declining over the past few years.Even drunk driving accident deaths have declined over the past five years, helped by a lowered tolerance to intoxicated driving, and stronger enforcement.However according to the data, the number of adult males aged between 51 and 65 years killed in auto accidents, increased by almost 25% between 2000 and 2009.In comparison, car accident deaths for all male drivers during the same period of time declined by more than 20%.Even auto accident deaths for female drivers declined by about 20% during the study period.
According to the analysts, it’s not just the increase in male car accident deaths in this age group that is concerning, but also the fact that much of this increase is related to drunk driving accidents.In fact, when it comes to drunk driving accident deaths, there has been an increase in fatalities among both men and women in this age group.The number of annual DUI deaths among baby boomers increased by 37% between 2000 and 2009.During the same period of time, rates of drunk driving accident fatalities across the country dropped by almost 7%.
Much of the attention on traffic safety has focused on teen and young drivers.However, this analysis seems to indicate that older motorists, who should know better, are failing to follow the advice that they dole out to youngsters.