Analysis of Age Group related driving offence data is a useful way of managing driving for work duty of care risk. Knowing what age groups are most prone to speeding, careless driving and dangerous driving, can provide an insight into the tendencies of age related driver behaviour.

The four data sets discussed in this article start with the driving licence holder age totals where the age group with the most number of licence holders is seen to be the 45 to 54 grouping. One would assume automatically that this group would be the most at risk due to sheer numbers. This indeed is the case where speeding offences are considered.

Interestingly though, if a percentage of the total drivers caught speeding and the number of licenced drivers within an age group is taken, those in the 35 to 45 age group have a higher percentage of offenders to licence holders; ≈ 1.94% compared with ≈ 1.87% for the age group 45 to 54.

Driving Licence Holder Age Groups

This analysis uses the sum of Provisional and Full licence holders whenever percentages are discussed and the percentage figures are approximations (≈) due to the use of two decimal places in the values shown. The data sets cover a period ranging from September 2015 to November 2016. The following graph is the driver licence holders by age group as of March 2017. The resulting analysis is an extrapolation of the offence data by age group in combination with this licence holder data set.

Speeding Offences

The numbers of drivers with speeding endorsements follow the trend of the licence holder age groupings. The total percentage, all group offenders to all group licence holders is ≈ 1.58%. Where the highest is ≈ 1.94% for the 35 to 44 age group and the lowest is ≈ 1.06%. for the 75 years or older. Interesting though, is the 17 to 24 years old recording a total of 57993 drivers out of 5027580 licence holders returning a ≈ 1.15%.

Careless Driving Offences

Contrarily, in comparison to speeding, careless drivers are more prone to be found amongst the younger age groups and is confirmed when calculating the number of offenders in those groups with the totals of licence holders in those groups. The only paradox being the age groups of 65 to 74 and 75 or older. Where the proportion of offenders to licence holders return the 75 or more years age group at ≈ 0.03% where the 65 to 74 grouping returns ≈ 0.02.

Dangerous Driving Offences

As with careless driving the majority of drivers with offences for dangerous driving fall within the two younger age groupings. The proportion of offenders to licence holders within those groups concurring with this. Again the age groups of 65 to 74 and 75 or older show that the 75 or older group has a higher proportion of licence holders of these two groups.

Data sets of this type are an invaluable resource, highlighting the most vulnerable areas of risk with just a glance of the charts. Putting a few calculations together enhances the results bringing forward an additional risk where proportional data using age period licence holder numbers just adds that little bit more. The conclusions are clear and the risk groups can easily be identified. Licence Link will continue to find the trends and publish the analysis, a free service to all involved in duty of care.