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Legal and Institutional Improvement Plans for the Prevention of Damages from Traffic Accidents among Senior Citizens

  • Public Land Law Review
  • Abbr : KPLLR
  • 2019, 88(), pp.193-213
  • Publisher : Korean Public Land Law Association
  • Research Area : Social Science > Law
  • Received : October 31, 2019
  • Accepted : November 20, 2019
  • Published : November 28, 2019

seon eun ae 1

1송원대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The recent trend in our country's traffic accidents is that the overall number of the accidents is on the decrease, but traffic accidents among senior citizens aged 65 and up are rapidly increasing. Nonetheless, not sufficient empirical studies have yet been implemented about the car accident risks of elderly drivers, and there is no improvement in existing preventive measures for elderly traffic accident victims. The rate of elderly victims in the total traffic deaths is pretty high. The problem is that traffic accidents occur a lot among elderly people, and another problem is that the case of severe damages that lead to death is larger than in any other age group. As for the background of this phenomenon, there are several causes. First, the issue about the traffic safety of senior citizens is not yet widely perceived in our country, and related legal and institutional measures aren't sufficient enough to produce practical effects. Second, senior citizens are more prone to traffic accidents on account of their physical characteristics, or they are highly likely to suffer more critical damage than any other age group even if the shock of the accident is similar. Third, they take violating traffic regulations lightly because they have a lot of such experience. This feature of their traffic culture could be said to be a cause to keep increasing their damages from traffic accidents. Therefore professional research into growing traffic accidents among the elderly should be implemented to determine how to cope with it properly, and the need to approach this issue not only to reduce their traffic accidents but also to improve their social welfare is raised in terms of the right direction for policy setting. The legislation for the right of senior citizens to traffic safety is required to prevent them against traffic accidents and relieve their damages, and the return of their driver's licenses should be stipulated in the related law instead of entrusting this matter to local governments. In addition, danger awareness programs should be conducted to educate elderly drivers about the danger of accidents. And a VR program or simulation should be introduced when a traffic accident prevention program is provided, and the implementation of a traffic accident program that informs senior citizens of the danger of traffic accidents should be stipulated in the related law as well. Besides, a personal assistant system should be introduced to relieve the damages of elderly traffic accident victims in an effort to ensure their traffic safety.

Citation status

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