News Story

"People who are 65 years and above are over-represented in pedestrian fatalities and this is likely to increase dramatically over the next few years, as our population ages," said PhD candidate Cath Gorrie, from the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says that although people aged 65 and older represent less than one-eighth of the Australian population, they represent about one-third of the total pedestrian accident deaths in recent years (93 of 290 pedestrian fatalities in 2001).

Researchers looked at the brains of 52 people who were 65 or over at the time they were killed in pedestrian accidents and carried out interviews with their families. These were compared with a control group.

43 percent of pedestrians who were killed had high scores for pathology associated with Alzheimer's disease, suggesting dementia or the pre-dementia condition called mild cognitive impairment, compared with 23 percent for the control group.

"Some of the early changes in cognitive impairment relate to visual and spatial attention, reaction time and speed of processing information," said Ms Gorrie. "These skills are essential for the safe negotiation of traffic.

"I hope this research raises awareness about the increased risk of accidents amongst this group of pedestrians, " she said. "We need to encourage older pedestrians to use designated crossings, for example, and alert drivers to be extra cautious in certain areas, such as in some shopping centres, or near nursing homes."

Ms Gorrie also examined the brains of 27 drivers who were 65 years of age or older when they were killed in car accidents. The results were also compared to a control group of older licenced drivers who died from other causes.

"None of the drivers had a history of dementia and only a small proportion had high levels of dementia pathology.

"This could be because older drivers with moderate or severe cognitive impairment voluntarily stop driving, or it might be because they don't pass licence renewal tests," said Ms Gorrie. "There are certain driving situations where those with mild dementia pathology were over-represented, however. These included accidents at intersections, in poor weather conditions, when other people were in the car and in multi-vehicle accidents."

The Motor Accidents Authority (NSW) funded the research.