US research team, Japanese case study… Accelerated accident by stepping on the accelerator instead of the brake
The rate of fatal traffic accidents caused by drivers aged 75 or older in Japan, a super-aged society, has increased by about 70% in the past 10 years. Cognitive screening, which is mandatory for older drivers, has been found to be effective in preventing older men from getting into traffic accidents.
This is the result of an analysis of Japanese police traffic accident reports (2012-2019) by a research team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. As a result of the study, the proportion of fatal traffic accidents caused by drivers aged 75 or older in Japan increased by more than 6 percentage points (about 70%) from less than 9% in 2008 to about 15%. It was analyzed that these older drivers were more than twice as likely to have fatal accidents than younger drivers. Also in 2019, 41 car accidents occurred in Japan in which drivers accidentally stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake, resulting in fatalities. Of these, 68% (28 cases) were accidents caused by drivers over the age of 75.
Drivers over the age of 75 in Japan must take a cognitive screening test to renew their license. If you are diagnosed with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, your driver’s license may be suspended or revoked. As a result, the number of elderly people with cognitive impairment who are involved in accidents while walking or riding a bicycle has increased far more than before. Haruhiko Inada, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, corresponding author of the study, said: “We will strengthen safety measures for older cyclists and pedestrians, and provide sufficient alternative transportation and care for older people to prepare them to stop driving. have to,” he said.
According to the results of the study, the mandatory cognitive screening reduced car accidents among elderly men, but there was no significant change among elderly women. The research team explained that since March 2017, the number of traffic accidents per capita has decreased among older men, but not among women. In Korea, many local organizations support cognitive screening tests for elderly drivers aged 75 or older free of charge.
In Japan, which entered a super-aged society in 2005, men and women over the age of 75 who were diagnosed with cognitive impairment were referred to a doctor from March 2017. A super-aged society is a society in which the elderly population aged 65 or older accounts for more than 20% of the total population. A total of 602,885 traffic accidents occurred during the study period, and 196,889 injuries involved pedestrians and cyclists.
The results of this study (Association between mandatory cognitive testing for license renewal and motor vehicle collisions and road injuries) were published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and introduced by Study Pines, an American science and culture portal.
