Just Adjudication

"The ability to predict future risk based on prior experience begins to decline after the age of 60 and becomes considerably less for those over 75 compared to any other group of non-novice drivers.
"The evidence before me establishes that for the category of drivers over 80, the risk per kilometre driven is higher than any other category of driver over the age of 25.
"As we age, particularly after 75 years of age, there is an increasing incidence in the prevalence of impairments ... which can have a significant negative impact on the ability to drive safely."
Adjudicator David Muir, Ontario Human Rights Tribunal

The elderly are still as intellectually sharp and agile as the youthful, if they haven't succumbed to some level of dementia by the time they've reached their golden years. It is their mental and physical reaction time, their ability to perceive occurrences of the moment that invariably becomes impaired with the aging process.

Driving is somewhat more than simply the physical manipulation of a well-entrenched habit.

It is being aware of what is happening around you, it is being capable of interpreting, and reacting in a swift and decisive manner to avoid collisions, to appropriately respond to situations that can and do erupt during the course of any driving experience. And it may also mean that the elderly driver has a responsibility to recognize when he/she should cease driving.

The auto insurance industry has reliable statistics that point to greater numbers of accidents occurring with male drivers under age 25. The Supreme Court of Canada has long since acknowledged statistics indicating males under 25 are more crash-prone, and that auto insurers are thus entitled to charge more in reflection of that fact.

The finding of the Ontario HRC adjudicator, set out in his 14-page report was a deep disappointment for Denis Olorenshaw, 92, of Toronto. Who had filed his complaint against Western Assurance Company when an insurance quote was given him $250 over one his 62-year-old daughter received. They both drove identical vehicles and lived at the same address.

He feels now that the auto insurance industry has been given licence to charge over 80-seniors, unfairly, from his perspective. "I'm sorry for them, because they're going to pay more. There doesn't seem to be any fairness involved here." On the contrary, it is absolutely fair. On the basis of an understanding that age equates with some measure of infirmity resulting in incapacity.

Driving, and the need to have insurance is not a right, nor an entitlement, it is a trust and an earned privilege. An actuary for Western testified that insurance losses with over-80 drivers were "significantly higher" than with any other age category with the exception of those under age 25. The under-25s are penalized with higher premium rates in reflection of their higher accident rates.

In all fairness, since the elderly contribute disproportionately to accident occurrences on the road, they too should be charged higher premiums to compensate for their higher cash risk. Mr. Olorenshaw pointed out that the elderly drive less, are more experienced, drive closer distances and try to avoid peak driving hours. (Which should logically result in fewer accidents.)

But this does not compensate for the loss of sensory perception, motor co-ordination and cognition decline due to advancing years, even though not all elderly are equally afflicted with these losses; many are not. Averages, in the end, is what insurance is all about, and categories that define certain traits and expectations place groups in certain positions.