News coverage of older drivers' fatal car crashes: is it over-represented?

Abstract

Background: Japan's stringent licensing policies for older drivers have not been questioned, possibly due to negative perceptions of older drivers potentially influenced by media coverage of their car crashes. We examined whether older drivers' fatal crashes are over-represented in the news articles.

Methods: To examine the news coverage of fatal crashes that occurred between January 2016 and December 2020, we extracted driver- and crash-related data from articles reporting fatal crashes in the two best-selling newspapers, Yomiuri and Asahi. We obtained the corresponding data of police-reported fatal crashes during the same period. We calculated the proportion of newspaper-reported fatal crashes to police-reported fatal crashes by at-fault driver's age group and crash characteristics.

Results: Of 12,987 police-reported fatal crashes, 5,888 (45%) and 2,909 (22%) crashes were reported in Yomiuri and Asahi newspapers, respectively. Excluding 2,098 crashes where at-fault drivers or their ages were not identifiable, Yomiuri reported 39%, 35%, and 31%, and Asahi reported 20%, 16%, and 14% of fatal crashes caused by drivers aged <30 years, 30-69 years, and 70 years or older, respectively. Crashes that caused more fatalities or killed children tended to be reported regardless of at-fault drivers' age groups. Compared with young and middle-aged drivers, older drivers' fatal crashes involving child fatalities were more reported, whereas their single fatal crashes ending in their own deaths were less reported.

Conclusion: Older drivers' at-fault fatal crashes were not over-represented in the news coverage of overall fatal crashes, and their crashes killing themselves were under-reported.