Financial news and opinion website 24/7 Wall St. reports that the most dangerous state for senior citizen drivers is Rhode Island, where seniors are 2.2 times more likely to die in a traffic accident than the overall state population. Americans 65 years of age and older are 21 percent more likely to be killed in a traffic accident than the population as a whole. Connecticut ranked #40 and Massachusetts ranked #14.
Check out Rhode Island’s “report card” HERE.
To identify the states where driving is the most dangerous for seniors, 24/7 Wall St. compared traffic fatality rates for residents 65 and older and for the entire state population. Data for these rates are from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are as of 2014, the most current available. Populations by age are from the 2014 American Consumer Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The main contributor is the susceptibility of seniors to injury and medical complications when involved in an accident. Drivers who are 80-84 year olds, for example, tend to be involved in the same number of accidents as 25-29 year olds. Yet, the 80-84 year old drivers are nearly three times as likely to die from those accidents.
Check out the full rankings from 24/7 Wall St HERE.
