17 September 2002: The age profile of drivers in the developed world is getting older, and a California task force has issued a set of recommendations about how to deal with increased accident risks because of this.

The California Task Force on Older Adults and Traffic Safety, convened by the California Office of Traffic Safety, says new driver assessment and and licencing practices must be instituted in the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

More research also needs to be done to expand the knowledge base about older adult traffic safety, the task force's report says. And healthcare and service providers must improve their ability to assess traffic risks amongst older people.

The report examines the problem under a number of parameters, including the increase in the number of older adults in California; the increase in the number of older drivers; the increase in the number of trips and mileage traveled by older drivers; variability among older adults (as people age they actually become more different from one another); the need for individualized assessment; and older adults vulnerability to injury and mortality from crashes.