Comparison of work-related traffic crashes between male taxi drivers aged ≥65 years and <65 years in South Korea

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The percentage of drivers aged ≥65 years among all Korean taxi drivers has risen sharply from 3.2% in 2006 to 22.0% in 2016. OBJECTIVE: This study compared the characteristics of work-related traffic crashes between male taxi drivers aged ≥65 years and <65 years. METHODS: Using the national compensation data of South Korea, 586 injured male taxi drivers were analyzed based on driver-related (work experience, company size, employment status, injured body part, and injury type) and crash-related factors (time and day of the crash, weather condition, road type, violation and drowsiness) by age group. RESULTS: For the injured drivers aged ≥65, percentages of the crashes related to some factors were lower than those of the drivers aged <65 years: at night (55.2% vs. 64.0%), on rainy or snowy day (7.8% vs. 21.3%), on straight road (40.5% vs 50.9%) and on the expressway (6.9% vs. 13.0%). However, the percentage of the crashes related to a violation for the injured drivers aged ≥65 years (23.3%) was higher than that of the drivers aged <65 years (13.4%). Furthermore, the taxi drivers aged ≥65 years had a higher death rate (14.7%) than the drivers aged <65 years (8.5%). CONCLUSIONS: The results can be useful for injury prevention policies and guidelines for elderly taxi drivers such as strengthened qualification tests for the aged drivers and improvement of the working environment.