Road fatalities among older pedestrians Pedestrians represent a significant component of Australia’s total road deaths. Of 1,737 deaths throughout Australia in 2001, about one-in-six (290) were pedestrians. This monograph provides a statistical overview of a major contributor to the pedestrian toll - people aged 65 years and older. Figure 1 shows the age and gender profile of total pedestrian road fatalities during the past five years in Australia. It shows that the major contributors have been males aged 15 to 54 and males and females aged 65 and older. The contribution from persons aged 65 and older is well in excess of what might be expected on the basis of their population share. Figure 2 shows the average rates of pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 population for individual age and gender groups during the past five years in Australia. Compared with average annual fatality rates of 0.6 or 0.7 fatalities per 100,000 persons for the safest groups - females aged below 55 - the rates for older people ranged up to 13.7 for males aged 85 and older. Although people aged 65 and older represent less than one-eighth of the Australian population, they have contributed about one-third of total pedestrian deaths in recent years (93 of the 290 pedestrian fatalities in 2001). This high toll reflects the greater reliance of older people on pedestrian travel, the perceptual, cognitive and physical deteriorations associated with ageing, and the older person’s greater frailty and risk of death if hit by a motor vehicle. Further, fatalities among older pedestrians are potentially set to grow substantially as Australia’s population ages over the next few decades. Recent population projections by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that the share of Australia’s population aged 65 years and older will double to about 24% by the year 2041. These facts demonstrate how important it is for Australian road safety practitioners to identify the characteristics of motor vehicle collisions involving older pedestrians and to reflect this knowledge in standards for roadway design and in other road safety countermeasures. In time, such planning will need to focus most of all on the very elderly pedestrian. Projected population increase is greatest for this age group. If other factors remain unchanged, by the year 2041 about one-in-three fatally injured older pedestrians will be aged 85+ compared with about one-in-five at present.