Older Drivers Are 27 Percent of Car Driver Deaths, DfT Data Shows

• Drivers aged 70 and over accounted for 27% of car driver deaths in Great Britain in 2025, up from 15% in 2004, according to Department for Transport figures.
• They now hold 6,341,485 full licences, or 14.8% of the total, compared with 3,902,135 and 10.4% in 2012.
• Deaths among older car drivers fell 26% from 164 in 1990 to 122 in 2025, but the number killed or seriously injured rose 14% from 1,087 in 2004 to 1,238.

Older Drivers Now Hold 6.3 Million Licences and 27 Percent of Car Driver Deaths

The Department for Transport (DfT) has published its 2025 factsheet on younger and older car drivers, and the figures for drivers aged 70 and over deserve a careful read. Older drivers accounted for 27% of all car driver fatalities in Great Britain in 2025. In 2004 the share was 15%. The rise lands as the number of older people holding a full licence climbs past six million.

The factsheet, first published on 24 September 2026, covers police reported collisions in Great Britain. It defines older drivers as those aged 70 and over and younger drivers as those aged 17 to 24, and it uses drivers aged 25 to 69 as the comparison group. Every figure in this article comes from the DfT release unless stated otherwise.

The headline share needs context, and the DfT supplies it. The number of older car drivers killed has fallen, from 164 in 1990 to 122 in 2025, a drop of 26%. The share has risen as deaths among other age groups fell faster, and as far more older people came to hold a licence.

How Deaths and Serious Injuries Among Older Drivers Have Shifted

The DfT compares 2004 with 2025 using severity adjusted figures. In 2004, 161 older car drivers were killed, which was 15% of all car driver deaths. In 2025 the figure was 122, which was 27%. Serious injuries among older car drivers went the other way, rising from 926 in 2004 to 1,116 in 2025. Added together, killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties among older car drivers rose 14%, from 1,087 to 1,238.

Other age groups moved in the opposite direction over the same period. KSI casualties among younger car drivers fell 64%, from 3,811 to 1,381. Among drivers aged 25 to 69 they fell 45%, from 9,050 to 5,014. Fatalities of younger car drivers dropped 81% between 1990 and 2025, from 448 to 84, and fatalities of drivers aged 25 to 69 fell 71%, from 804 to 237.

The DfT also counts everyone hurt in collisions that involve an older driver, whoever they were. In 2025, 232 people were killed and 3,244 seriously injured in collisions involving at least one older car driver. That is 3,476 KSI casualties, up 16% from 2,996 in 2004. Older drivers were involved in 14% of all KSI casualties in 2025, double the 7% recorded in 2004.

Most of the people hurt in those collisions are older themselves. Between 2021 and 2025, older drivers accounted for 36% of KSI casualties in collisions involving an older driver, a larger share than the equivalent figure for any other driver age group. Over half of KSI casualties in those collisions were aged 70 or over, split almost evenly between men and women.

Why the Licence Numbers Explain Much of the Rise

The DfT pairs its casualty data with DVLA driving licence counts. Full licences held by people aged 70 and over rose from 3,902,135 in 2012 to 6,341,485 in November 2025, lifting their share of all full licences from 10.4% to 14.8%. Over the same period full licences held by drivers aged 17 to 24 slipped from 2,886,868 to 2,706,384, a fall in share from 7.7% to 6.3%. Drivers aged 25 to 69 held 33,805,822 licences, a share that dipped from 81.9% to 78.9%.

The DfT says the long term changes in casualties are likely to reflect a number of factors, including demographic change and the growing number of older people with licences. In simple terms, a bigger group of older drivers on the road produces a bigger group of older drivers in the casualty figures, and the DfT says the long term changes reflect demographic change alongside other factors.

Exposure data adds another layer. Using National Travel Survey mileage from 2024, the DfT worked out KSI casualty rates per billion miles travelled and per million trips. In 2025, younger and older drivers had the highest rates of any age group on both measures. Younger male drivers and older female drivers recorded the highest rates per billion miles. Younger drivers also travel more miles on each trip than older drivers, which is why the two measures give different rankings.

Severity is part of the story too. The DfT’s wider 2025 casualty release found that people aged 70 and over had the highest proportion of casualties classed as killed or seriously injured, meaning an older person hurt in a collision is more likely to be badly hurt than a younger person in the same position.

Where and When Older Driver Casualties Happen

The factsheet pools data from 2021 to 2025 to compare where and when collisions occur. Older driver KSI casualties were concentrated close to home, with 56% happening within three miles of the driver’s home postcode, compared with around 40% for other aged drivers. Older driver casualties clustered around midday and the afternoon, while younger driver casualties peaked late in the evening and in the early hours. Younger drivers made up 38% of car driver KSI casualties at 2am.

Junctions stand out for older drivers. A higher share of older driver KSI casualties happened at T or staggered junctions than among other aged drivers, and a lower share happened away from junctions. Single car collisions made up 21% of older driver KSI casualties, against 22% for drivers aged 25 to 69 and 36% for younger drivers. Rural roads accounted for the largest share of KSI casualties in every age group.

What Police Recorded as the Causes

Police officers can record up to six road safety factors for each collision, and the DfT warns that these reflect officer opinion at the scene rather than a full investigation. With that caution, the 2024 and 2025 data for fatal or serious collisions shows clear differences by age.

Ineffective observation was the most common factor for every age group, and it was highest for older drivers at 41.8%, against 30.4% for drivers aged 25 to 69 and 31.4% for younger drivers. Poor turns or manoeuvres, including overshooting a junction, were recorded for 22.4% of older drivers, against 12.9% for drivers aged 25 to 69.

Health and eyesight showed the widest gaps. Illness or disability was recorded for 15.6% of older drivers, 5.6 times the 2.8% rate for drivers aged 25 to 69. Uncorrected or defective eyesight was recorded for 4.6% of older drivers, 15 times the 0.3% rate for drivers aged 25 to 69, yet it still applied to only about one in twenty older drivers. Vision affected by weather or low sun was recorded for 5.9% of older drivers, against 3.6%, and being too tired to drive safely for 3.8%, against 2.4%.

The pattern reverses on the behaviours that dominate headlines about road safety. Being affected by alcohol was recorded for 1.2% of older drivers, against 6.0% for drivers aged 25 to 69 and 8.0% for younger drivers. Drugs were recorded for 0.3% of older drivers, against 3.7% and 6.5%. Exceeding the speed limit applied to 3.0% of older drivers, against 8.0% and 20.6%, and using a mobile device to 0.4%, against 1.2% and 1.8%. Between 2021 and 2025, 12% of older car driver fatalities with a known seatbelt status were not wearing one, compared with 29% of younger drivers.

What Older Drivers and Their Families Can Take From the Data

The factsheet is a statistical release. It does not propose a rule change, an age limit or a new test, and nothing in it alters the rules that apply to licence renewal today. What it does is show which problems the police record most often when an older driver is involved in a serious collision.

Those problems point to a short list of practical checks. Observation and junction handling top the list, so it is worth thinking about how you approach T junctions and right turns near home, where more than half of older driver KSI casualties occurred. Eyesight is the second area: uncorrected or defective vision and low sun both feature, and an up to date sight test is the simplest way to rule out a fixable problem. Health is the third. The DVLA publishes guidance on driving with medical conditions on gov.uk, and a conversation with a GP is the right route if a condition affects concentration, vision or reaction time.

Age alone is not the risk marker. The data shows older drivers are far less likely than other groups to be recorded as speeding, drinking, using drugs, using a phone or driving unbelted. The factors that stand out are observation, manoeuvres, health and eyesight, and most of them can be addressed. The DfT also notes that older drivers were less likely than other groups to have a collision away from a junction.

The licence trend is the number to watch. With 6.3 million older drivers holding full licences and the share rising each year, the absolute count of older drivers in the casualty data will keep climbing unless the underlying rate falls. For families, that makes the conversation about eyesight, health and confidence at junctions a routine part of keeping a relative driving safely, rather than a question of when to stop.

Sources:

• Reported road casualties in Great Britain: younger and older car drivers factsheet, 2025 (DfT)
• RRCGB 2025: Introduction and main findings (DfT)