Conducción y envejecimiento / Driving and aging

Cada día aumenta el número de personas mayores que continúa circulando por nuestras carreteras. Sin embargo, aún no está claro si los mayores sufren más accidentes de tráfico que otros grupos de población. Es cierto que presentan una serie de factores de riesgo por la disminución de sus funciones motoras, sensoriales y cognitivas, mostrando también una mayor fragilidad y vulnerabilidad. Sin embargo, los conductores mayores son conscientes de sus riesgos y ponen en práctica una serie de acciones compensatorias, evitando aquellas situaciones de conducción que consideran amenazantes (tráfico denso, condiciones climatológicas adversas o conducción nocturna), transitan por recorridos conocidos y conducen con precaución. Ante estas impresiones contradictorias, este trabajo pretende discernir el riesgo real de sufrir accidentes, los patrones de conducción y de accidentalidad característicos de un sector de la población que crece cada vez más en los países desarrollados(AU)

The number of older people who continue to drive is constantly increasing. However, whether older people have more traffic accidents than other age groups is unclear. This age group has certain risk factors due to decreased motor, sensory and cognitive functions and also has greater frailty and vulnerability to injury. However, older drivers are aware of their heightened crash risk and employ certain compensatory actions, avoiding traveling under threatening conditions (dense traffic, bad weather or night driving), traveling by well-known routes and driving carefully. In view of these apparent contradictions, the present study attempts to discern the real crash risk and the driving and crash patterns characteristic of this population, which is continually increasing in industrialized countries(AU)

[Driving and aging]. / Conducción y envejecimiento.

The number of older people who continue to drive is constantly increasing. However, whether older people have more traffic accidents than other age groups is unclear. This age group has certain risk factors due to decreased motor, sensory and cognitive functions and also has greater frailty and vulnerability to injury. However, older drivers are aware of their heightened crash risk and employ certain compensatory actions, avoiding traveling under threatening conditions (dense traffic, bad weather or night driving), traveling by well-known routes and driving carefully. In view of these apparent contradictions, the present study attempts to discern the real crash risk and the driving and crash patterns characteristic of this population, which is continually increasing in industrialized countries.