Older people are or remain increasingly mobile for longer and participate in road traffic as car drivers/occupants, cyclists and pedestrians. Regardless of the role they play in causing accidents, they are more likely to suffer serious and very serious injuries due to their greater vulnerability. If involved in an accident, older people suffer more and more serious injuries, which leads to longer hospital stays. These aspects apply in particular to the over-75 age group, even more so than for 65 to 74-year-olds.
A GIDAS analysis of the individual injuries of different road user types reveals the most frequently seriously and most severely injured body regions and the leading injuries. Head and thorax injuries are of primary importance, followed by injuries to the lower extremities (especially cyclists and pedestrians).
The results presented largely confirm findings from comparable studies. However, this study was conducted for the first time on the basis of the AIS 2015, and some individual injuries (in particular commotio cerebri, which dominates in almost all age and road user groups) were upgraded from AIS1 to AIS2 in the last AIS revision. As a result, the current results show some significant increases in injury severity compared to earlier studies based on the AIS 2008, particularly in the head area.
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