Accidents with Elderly Drivers Increase 1.5 Times

Traffic deaths involving elderly drivers have increased 1.5 times over the past five years, according to the analysis by Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Song Seog-jun.

Accidents involving over-65s jumped 51.9 percent from 17,590 in 2013 to 26,713 in 2017 even as the total number of traffic accidents dropped to 216,000 in 2017 after peaking at 232,000 in 2015.

Elderly drivers are more prone to traffic accidents than young drivers because their reactions slow down and there are more and more of them.

The number of elderly drivers increased about 1.7 times from 1.66 million in 2012 to 2.8 million in 2017 and rising.

More than half of the elderly drivers who caused traffic accidents in the past five years failed to pay attention to the road or lacked driving skills.