Senior drivers threat to selves, study finds

A new study says that senior drivers pose more of a threat to themselves than to others on the road.

The study, released Tuesday by AAA, says that by age 70, drivers' risk to themselves and others begins to rise and increases more rapidly by age 75. In car crashes, it is drivers 85 and older who are killed more often than other drivers. The AAA said it is two to three times the rate of 16- and 17-year-old drivers who die in crashes.

"Studies show that an older driver's increased fragility is the key factor in higher death rates," Rolayne Fairclough, a spokeswoman for the AAA of Utah said in a statement. "The finding that older drivers have elevated rates of passenger fatalities may also be attributable, at least in part, to their passengers being older, and thus more susceptible to injury."

— Ben Winslow