The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has worked carefully to create a strategic plan and to publish new guidelines to improve driver safety among seniors. The agency’s new guidelines and plan address an issue that is likely to become a growing concern in the United States: the aging of the driving population.

An experienced car accident attorney in Boston knows that senior drivers tend to have a high rate of accidents and, other than teenagers, are most likely to become involved in collisions. The issues leading to accidents caused by seniors are different than the public-health problems plaguing other drivers, like increased cell phone use. Instead, the reasons seniors tend to have more crashes are age-related and include slower reaction times and physical and cognitive impairments that often occur with age. The NHTSA needs to deal proactively with the risks presented by seniors, and its new plan and guidelines are a good start.

NHTSA’s Guidelines and Traffic Safety Plan

One of the cornerstones of the NHTSA’s efforts to deal with aging drivers is the publication of the first-ever Older Driver Highway Safety Program Guidelines. States are encouraged to review the guidelines and to work from the suggestions within them to identify and help at-risk senior drivers before accidents happen. The guidelines were developed by the NHTSA after the agency reviewed best practices from around the United States.  The guidelines encourage collaboration at the state level among senior service providers, doctors, drivers’ license officials and state departments of transportation.

The NHTSA also has plans to make vehicles safer for seniors. These plans include researching new crash avoidance technologies as well as a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system. The technologies being researched will help all drivers, but especially seniors since the technologies target the issues that seniors are most likely to experience behind the wheel.

Because it isn’t enough to just make some cars safer, the NHTSA is also going to be considering the features that cars can offer seniors and will be grading the vehicles on that as part of a new “Silver” rating system. Seniors can look at the silver rating and see if the car is well-designed for someone with their age bracket.

Finally, the NHTSA is going to try to better understand and shape driver behavior. The increased understanding of motorists could come from improved data collection systems, which will be more equipped to record information such as cognitive, physical and perceptual changes that are associated with the behavior of senior drivers.

Ultimately, individuals and families are the ones who best know how a senior is behaving and what cognitive or physical limitations have developed. However, the NHTSA guidelines and best-practice suggestions mean that even seniors who don’t have family members who step in may be identified as at-risk and thus could avoid a car accident caused by their dangerous driving actions.  Everyone benefits when seniors stay off the roads if they cannot drive safely, and the NHTSA efforts will hopefully help avoid accidents by providing more insight into how senior drivers should be evaluated.

If you’ve been hurt, call 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 for a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone.

According to Boston.com, a 19-year-old driver struck and killed a 63-year-old-woman in early November. Despite pleas from his friend in the vehicle to stop the car, the driver left the scene of the accident. The young driver returned to the crash scene a short time later, identifying himself as the driver, telling police that he knew he hit something but did not know what and he panicked.

Witnesses to the accident indicated that the young man driving the car did not appear to have been speeding and likely did not see the victim who was struck by the vehicle. His driver’s license was active at the time of the crash and witnesses indicate that the woman who was crossing the street “made a bold move” and appeared to be trying to use her flashlight to stop traffic.

The teen’s decision to leave the scene of the accident could have serious consequences as hit-and-run laws require drivers to stop after they become involved in a traffic accident.  Any car accident attorney in Boston knows that it can be frightening for a driver to become involved in a crash, especially a young driver. Parents need to make sure kids know what to do if they are involved in an accident, and parents should also take steps to teach teenagers about driving dangers so they can avoid being involved in a crash.

Parents Should Advise Teens on Safe Driving Rules

The NHTSA has identified five key things that parents should talk to teen drivers about in order to reduce their accident risk. As part of its new “5 to Drive” campaign, the NHTSA has information available that parents can use to talk to their kids about:

• The importance of never using a cell phone when driving.
• Limits on extra passengers in the car since driving with lots of people in the vehicle can increase the chance of a collision.
• The importance of staying within the speed limit.
• The importance of always driving sober.
• The importance of wearing a seat belt any time teens are in the car, whether driving or as a passenger.

This list was created based on data about the top causes of teen car accidents. In 2011, for example, speed was a factor in 35 percent of fatal car crashes involving teen drivers and more than 50 percent of teens who died in accidents didn’t have their seat belts on. Drunk driving teens were also involved in 550 fatal crashes in 2011 and 12 percent of teens who were killed in auto accidents were distracted at the time of the collision. By having a conversation with their kids, parents can help them to make smarter choices and avoid these risks.

Parents should also make clear to their teen drivers that they must always stop if they hit someone in order to avoid breaking the law and facing potential criminal charges.

If you’ve been hurt, call 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 for a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone.