Collision avoidance systems have not become the norm in vehicles in New Jersey and around the nation as of yet. However, recent findings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) suggest that manufacturers should consider making collision avoidance systems standard.
In 2017, lane departure warning systems were standard in only 6 percent of vehicles, and blind spot alerts were standard in only 9 percent of vehicles during this same time. However, the IIHS findings concluded that an 11 percent reduction exists for single-vehicle, side-swipe and head-on collisions when a vehicle has a collision avoidance system. In the same study, it found that a 21 percent reduction in injury crashes exists for drivers of vehicles equipped with collision avoidance technology.
While making reference to collision avoidance technology, the IIHS vice president for research was quoted in a CNBC news report stating that the systems are saving lives and that the numbers show that they work. Nonetheless, researchers for IIHS also believe that some drivers find the anti-collision technology annoying, and those drivers are turning off the systems. When drivers disable the anti-collision systems, the obvious result is that the systems are ineffective, so the percentage of accident reduction is lower.
The conclusion that drivers are reducing the benefits of the vehicle collision reduction systems by disabling the technology stems from a comparison of IIHS recent findings with studies completed when tracking U.S. trucking fleets and Volvo cars in Sweden. The latter studies found lane departure warning systems cut crash rates by roughly 50 percent.
If a person has been injured in a vehicle accident, they may wish to speak with a personal injury attorney to ensure that their rights are protected. A driver who disables a collision prevention system could breach a duty of care owed to other drivers by voluntarily increasing the likelihood of a preventable crash or an injury-inducing vehicle crash.
