Driver mistakes are by far the most common cause of traffic accidents. There are age groups that are particularly prone to certain types of misconduct.
By far the most common reason for traffic accidents in Germany is human error. As the testing organization Dekra shows in an analysis based on accident figures from the Federal Statistical Office, misconduct was the cause of 2019 percent of accidents with personal injury in 88,2. Around 65 percent of this can be traced back to the misconduct of car drivers.
In addition to male drivers, young novice drivers and the elderly were the statistically most conspicuous groups, each of whom frequently exhibited certain types of misconduct. While too high speed and too little distance are mentioned as the cause of accidents particularly often among 18- to 24-year-olds, for drivers over the age of 65, disregarding the right of way or disregarding priority is very important. According to Dekra, the latter is primarily due to the decreasing performance of older people. In order to reduce the risk of accidents, especially for older drivers, the technical monitoring association recommends optimizing the infrastructure and assistance systems in the vehicles.
