Let’s expand upon this analysis. Raw data miss the full picture, and age categories need to be fixed across analyses.
First, the fatalities must be adjusted for the size of each group.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2023/dl20.cfm
25-34 year olds: 17.3% of total drivers, 18.8% of deaths per World Traveler’s data. Deaths/ drivers: 1.09x.
65+ drivers: 22.2% of drivers, 20.1% of deaths per World Traveler’s data. Deaths/drivers: 0.91x.
On this simple metric, old people look “safer.” They punch below their weight.
However, this skips other salient data like miles driven data, as well as sex of the driver, if they’re drunk, and city vs highway driving patterns.
To avoid this becoming a doctoral dissertation, I will only integrate miles driven by age (circa 2000, so caveat emptor). https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm
We see that 20-34 year olds’ average miles driven at 15,098 is about double that of the 65+ lot of 7,646.
If we apply the youths’ average to the number of drivers data (assuming the inclusion of 20-24 year olds and the differing time frames don’t cause too much bias), we find that 25-34 year olds drive 619 billion miles annually, about 1.5x more miles than the 65+ group at 404 billion miles.
However, the 25-34 year olds don’t have 1.5x more auto fatalities than the old folks. Indeed, the youngsters/oldsters deaths metric is 0.91x.
Put differently, 25-34 year olds die on the road for every 95 million miles they drive, versus every 55 million miles driven by 65+.
Adjusting for miles driven and number of drivers, older folks die more often on the road than youngsters.
No problem with your analysis. Older people do die more often than the young, and some are passengers in vehicles, so the data need be even more granular. Generally, I go with the insurance companies whose profits are generated by making the safest bets possible.
Good analysis. Also, some elderly people have broken their backs or necks simply by a minor accident that wouldn’t impact a young person at all. Especially at risk are those on blood thinners like Eliquis.