Early Warnings Help Prevent Rear-End Accidents for West Palm Beach Drivers
Drivers in West Palm Beach, CityPlace, Flamingo Park and Wellington need to understand the risks of rear-end collisions. Rear-end crashes are the cause of more than one-fifth of all motor vehicle accidents in the United States and cause 4.7 percent of fatalities, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Crashes causing serious injury, significant property damage and death must be reported to the police. In addition to reported accidents, almost 2 million additional non-reported rear end accidents likely happen annually. 
Motorists can try to avoid becoming involved in a rear-end accident by leaving a long enough following distance to provide time to react to the car in front. However, depending upon other drivers to be responsible is not always effective.
A rear-end accident lawyer knows an automated early warning system could be instrumental in helping to reduce the chances of a rear-end collision. These systems alert drivers to an impending impact and some technology systems would even allow for autonomous braking if the driver took no evasive action.
Early Warnings Help Prevent Rear-End Crashes from Occurring
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a study to determine the impact of early warning systems.
- A warning system can reduce the chances of a rear-end accident by 80.7 percent. This is because many crashes that are caused by driver inattention can be prevented when the warning is issued to the motorist.
- The severity of rear-end accidents is reduced by 96.5 percent. This is an even more significant reduction because a warning leads to drivers slowing down, even if they cannot stop. Since the severity of a crash is proportional to the speed at which the cars hit, the crashes are much less dangerous when a driver tries to slow down or stop before hitting another car.
The way in which an early warning system is presented can make a difference in how effective the system is in stopping rear-end crashes from happening. Visual displays have been found to be more effective at helping drivers to maintain their headway when compared with auditory systems. However, when a collision is imminent, an auditory display prompted more drivers to respond to valid alerts and less motorists to respond to false alarms. This suggests that when it comes to crash avoidance, auditory systems may be the most effective.
A warning system also has to use the right algorithms to determine when to warn a driver. A system that is not timed correctly and that issues the warning at the wrong time could undermine driver safety, having the opposite of the desired effect.
Several algorithms have been designed to help determine how best to create a rear-end crash warning system. One design that has shown promise involves an algorithm that triggers a warning distance at a specific time and distance. The time and distance at which the warning system is triggered is determined based on the initial distance between the cars.
As work continues on finding the perfect warning system, drivers remain responsible for making their own choices about safety and ensuring they pay attention to the road at all times to avoid rear-end crash risks.
Accident lawyers in West Palm Beach can help injury victims in CityPlace, Flamingo Park and Wellington and surrounding areas. Call Gonzalez & Cartwright, P.A. today at 800-608-2965.
