Lafont Sylviane, Amoros Emmanuelle, Gadegbeku Blandine, Chiron Mireille, Laumon Bernard
Transportation, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Research and Surveillance Unit (UMRESTTE), Joint Unit of the University of Lyon (University Lyon 1), Lyon, F-69008, France.
Accid Anal Prev. 2008 Jan;40(1):289-94. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2007.05.010. Epub 2007 Jul 16.
One of the concerns in road safety is the threat older drivers may pose to other road users. Using the rate of lost life years, the present study provides a public health approach to quantify this potential threat.
A total of 1570686 motorised vehicle drivers or motorcycle riders and 652246 non-drivers, i.e. vehicle passengers, pedestrians and cyclists involved in injury crashes in France between 1996 and 2004, were included in a population based cross-sectional study. Fatality rates and rate of lost life years for each crash-involved driver age class were calculated for the drivers themselves and for other road users.
The study has shown a significant reduction in the rate of lost life years for crash-involved other road users (whether passengers, pedestrians, cyclists or opposing drivers) as driver age increases. Other road users lost half as many years of life when involved in crashes with drivers aged over 85 than with drivers under 65 (1.26 and 2.32 per 100 expected remaining life years, respectively).
Our findings suggest that among road users involved in injury crashes, older drivers are less dangerous for the other road users. By attributing other road users' lost life years to each driver age, this study represents a new contribution to the debate about ageing and road safety.
道路安全方面的一个担忧是老年驾驶员可能对其他道路使用者构成的威胁。本研究采用生命年损失率，提供了一种公共卫生方法来量化这一潜在威胁。
一项基于人群的横断面研究纳入了1996年至2004年期间在法国涉及伤害事故的1570686名机动车驾驶员或摩托车骑手以及652246名非驾驶员，即车辆乘客、行人及骑自行车的人。计算了每个事故涉及驾驶员年龄组中驾驶员自身以及其他道路使用者的死亡率和生命年损失率。
研究表明，随着驾驶员年龄的增加，涉及事故的其他道路使用者（无论是乘客、行人、骑自行车的人还是对向驾驶员）的生命年损失率显著降低。与85岁以上驾驶员发生事故时，其他道路使用者损失的生命年数是与65岁以下驾驶员发生事故时的一半（每100个预期剩余生命年分别为1.26和2.32）。
我们的研究结果表明，在涉及伤害事故的道路使用者中，老年驾驶员对其他道路使用者的危险性较小。通过将其他道路使用者的生命年损失归因于每个驾驶员年龄，本研究为关于老龄化与道路安全的辩论做出了新贡献。
