

Federal highway safety officials will investigate the possibility of such a rating system as part of a five-year plan designed to reduce the number of fatal and injury-causing accidents among older drivers.

The plan, released Thursday, also called for more research into how technology could prevent crashes or reduce their severity.

One promising technology warns drivers when their car has moved outside its lane. Another automatically applies the brakes when a car is destined to ram the vehicle in front of it.

Over the past decade, the number of fatal crashes in the U.S. has declined significantly, but the progress had been more modest for older drivers, and came to a halt last year when 5,560 people older than age 65 were killed as a result of motor vehicle crashes, a 3 percent increase from 2011. Another 214,000 were injured, a rise of 16 percent.

The government has a five-star safety rating system for vehicles. It's now asking whether it can do better when it comes to older drivers. They are expected to drive more miles and drive later into life than previous generations.

"Let me be clear. What we're talking about here is information. Information is power. This is not something that is going to change the price of vehicles," said David Friedman, deputy administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "The idea is to get consumers as smart as they can be about their safety choices when they walk into the showroom."

The agency also released new guidelines for the states to improve safety for older drivers.

One of the recommendations called for in-person renewal of driver licenses once a person hits a certain age if a state determines there is a problem with older driver crashes.

Another guideline called for all states to establish medical advisory boards that assess the medical fitness of individuals to drive. About two-thirds of the states have such boards.