Georgia Injury Law Blog
Auto accident prevention technologies like forward collision warning systems do a very good job of reducing the risk of auto accidents involving passenger vehicles, but may not be as effective in preventing motorcycle accidents and trucking accidents.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently released the findings of two new studies which found that forward collision warning systems and automatic emergency braking systems are very beneficial in reducing the risk of car accidents involving passenger vehicles, but not as effective in preventing accidents involving motorcycles and trucks. The studies focused on more than 160,000 auto accidents involving passenger vehicles, large trucks and motorcycles.
According to the studies, these systems can help reduce the risk of rear-ender auto accidents involving passenger vehicles by as much as 53%. However, they were found to reduce the risk of accidents involving large commercial trucks by only 38% and motorcycle accidents by 41%. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, as many as 5,500 lives could be saved every year if auto accident prevention systems were enhanced to make them more effective in identifying and reducing the risk of colliding with large tractor trailers. An additional 500 lives could be saved in motorcycle accidents if these technologies could be improved to help identify motorcycles that are notoriously harder to identify for motorists.
Both motorcycles and large trucks can be harder for drivers to spot when they are driving. Motorcycles can fall in a drivers’ blind spots, which means the driver may miss seeing these riders until it is too late to avoid an accident. In the case of a large truck, smaller passenger vehicles can fall in the truck driver’s blind spots, which makes it harder for the trucker to spot the smaller car. When an accident involves a motorcycle or a large truck, the risk of fatality involving the motorcyclists and the occupants of the smaller car colliding with the truck is immense. While there may be fewer motorcycle accidents and trucking accidents every year than car accidents, these accidents contribute a disproportionate number of deaths to the overall death tally in auto accidents every year.
What the study seems to indicate is that these crash prevention systems need to be tested against narrower frame vehicles like motorcycles as well as larger vehicles like trucks in order to perfect the algorithm and make the systems more effective in preventing truck and motorcycle accidents.
The Atlanta car accident lawyers at Katz Personal Injury Lawyers are dedicated to the representation of persons who have suffered injuries in car accidents in the metro Atlanta region and across the state of Georgia. If you or a loved one have suffered injuries in a car accident, talk to a lawyer at our firm and discuss your legal options for a claim for damages. You may qualify for compensation that includes medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering and other types of compensation. Talk to an attorney at our firm and discuss your case. Initial consultations are free.