At the Institute for Legal Medicine in Hamburg, 54 car and bus accidents involving elderly people (age > or = 65 years) over the last decade have been studied. Differences in sex and age, the reasons for accident and death, and specific problems of clinical therapy are analyzed. Mostly men had been the drivers, half of them being personally responsible for the accident. Special psychophysical factors associated with old age could not be identified as causative factors for the accidents within this series.