Although the number of accidents on Austriaʼs roads has fallen significantly by 7% in the first three quarters of the past ten years, it can be seen, that the number of senior citizens injured or killed has increased sharply by 22% in the same period. An all-time-high was recorded from January to September 2023 – in this period every seventh person involved in an accident was over the age of 65. In addition, over 65-year-olds also had more serious accidents: a quarter of seniors involved in accidents were seriously injured or killed, while this proportion was significantly lower for other age groups (Statistics Austria, 2024).

Austria is not a “special case”. If you look at the EU-wide figures, an increase in fatalities among senior citizens has been clearly noticeable in recent decades. While the number of road traffic fatalities fell continuously between 2010 and 2018, there has been an increase of fatalities in the 65+ population.

The paper discusses the following areas:

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