A study on the effect of sports on elderly traffic injury prevention

In recent years, the percentage of elderly fatalities in traffic crashes in Japan has been increasing and has exceeded 50% since 2010. The fatality rate is high for the elderly due to the deterioration of physical functions.

The purpose of this study was to reduce the high fatality rate of elderly people at the time of the crash and to find out the effective exercise elements for maintaining physical functions, and to deter traffic crashes and reduce the fatality rate of the elderly people.

The effect of exercise on improving and maintaining physical fitness was remarkable, and even when encountering a near miss injuries or crashes, the percentage of the group that was able to respond in some way to a near miss or crashes was higher in the group that regularly exercised. The elderly who do not exercise tend to take longer to start crossing and tend to check both sides of the road less often while crossing. In addition, when they were about to encounter a car, they tended to continue walking, which tended to lead to dangerous crossing.

As a result of the questionnaire survey, the possibility of preventing traffic crashes by participating in sports was confirmed. As a result of running experiments using a crossing simulator, it was found that elderly people who do not exercise have a gap between their usual awareness of crossing and their actual behavior.

Through the discovering elements of exercise that are useful in reducing injuries will make it possible to provide accurate guidance and training to elderly people with reduced physical functions, and it is expected that pedestrians will be able to avoid traffic injuries with their own abilities.