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Older people and accident prevention in the UK
Recently, throughout the course of my job working for a personal injury compensation claim company, it came to attention that older people in the UK are hugely over represented in the number of trip and slip accident compensation claims.
Usually, trip and slip accidents involving older people are caused by uneven ground, whether on kerbs, pathways or paving stones. Put simply, older people are more vulnerable to the hazards associated with this kind of accident. Not only are they more likely to be a little unsure on their feet, but they are also less likely to see potential hazards.
Then there is the problem of older people's relative frailty. For while they are more likely to fall foul of slip and trip hazards, they are also more likely to suffer serious injury as a result of these accidents than other more youthful and physically robust citizens.
As organisations acting to promote the interests of older people, such as Age Concern, are aware, these problems are made even more pressing by the fact that the UK's population is aging in an unprecedented way. Unless local councils and national government work hard to ensure that the risk is minimised, avoidable falls involving older people could well become a significant social, health and economic problem at a national level.
It was during these ruminations I segued into thinking about how an ageing population affects another of my professional concerns: the number of road traffic accidents in the UK.
Whatever the prejudiced stereotype among some members of the younger population about supposedly dithering and erratic older drivers, all statistics seem to show us that this age group is in fact among the safest on our roads. In a way, it is offensive that anyone would expect them to be otherwise. After all, these are the people with the most driving experience, the most life experience and, generally, the greatest appreciation of their own and others' mortality.
It was this thought that struck me with the most resonance. For, surely, if, the UK is witnessing an increasingly ageing population and a long-standing decreasing birth rate, this must be reflected in the incidence of road traffic accidents in the UK. It would make sense that, if there are fewer drivers from the most accident-prone demographic of 16-24-year-olds, and more of the older and safer demographic, there would be less car crashes.
And the figures would appear to confirm this. The Department for Transport do, indeed, report that there is a trend for yearly falls in the number of serious road accident deaths and injuries. However, marginal these falls might be statistics available for the most recent year, 2006, show total casualties had fallen by around 13,000 on the previous year they demonstrate that the UK's roads seem to be getting safer.
While these two contrasting pictures involving older people inform us that accident prevention is always going to be a complex task, they also help remind us that getting older is not always about becoming frail, vulnerable and falling over. For many, it is also about possessing improved skills, greater maturity and increased awareness.
Looking at the two accident outlooks, it is also hard to avoid the feeling that our more senior and responsible citizens must surely deserve safer walkways. I know that when I reach retirement age, I'd like to feel confident that I am able to step out for an evening stroll without having to constantly watch my step. Surely we all deserve the same?
