According to a study conducted by TRIP, a nonprofit national transportation research group based in Washington, D.C., Texas ranks second out of 20 states for the number of elderly drivers who lose their lives in motor vehicle accidents, from car accidents to truck accidents.
The authors of the study write that the U.S. transportation system is not equipped to handle elderly drivers’ “growing mobility and safety needs.”
Needless to say, if you’ve seen the kind of tanker truck traffic in South Texas due to the Eagle Ford Shale and Barnett Shale drilling, you’d realize that it’s not just the elderly who are having trouble getting around.
Nonetheless, the number of drivers over the age of 65 will continue to increase, and these folks are “more mobile and active than any previous generation.”
TRIP calls for:
- Safer roads
- Safer drivers
- Safer vehicles
- Improved choices
Easier said than done, right? But we definitely agree with the “safer roads” call to action, as many South Texas roads were not built to handle all the oil tanker traffic going to and from the Eagle Ford Shale and Barnett Shale.
Widening the lanes, for instance, would be a great improvement.
Source: Traffic Fatalities Among Older Drivers Remain Disproportionately High