Abstract
- More than 40,000 people died in road traffic accidents for 3 consecutive years in the United States
- 2.35 million people were injured
- More than 1,600 children under the age of 15 and 8000 drivers aged between 16 and 20 years old were killed every year in car accidents
- Car accidents result in $ 230.6 million economic loss annually, or an average of US $ 820 per person
Introduction:
In 2018, an estimated 40,000 people were killed in car accidents. The number of deaths in Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC has increased by at least 5.8%. These five states have fallen by more than 9.4%: Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Wyoming.
The full 2017 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data set indicates that distracted driving, driving under influence, speeding, reckless driving, and road rage are the main causes of accidents. * What is also worth noting is that high temperature in a locked vehicle is a major cause of death to children in motor vehicles in recent years.
During the first half of 2019, a total of 18,580 people lost their lives to car accidents- a 3% decline from 2018 and a 3% decline from the final estimate of 2017. The estimated fatality number is 11.8 per 100,000 people which is 3% lower than the number at the beginning of 2018.
The estimated mileage death rate is 1.2 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, which remains stable as 2018. In addition, as of June, the estimated economic loss to motor vehicle deaths, injuries and property losses sum up to $ 191.7 million, – a 1% from 2018.
After the NHTSA fatality report is released, Self-Driving Coalition general counsel and former NHTSA administrator David Strickland stated: “With more than 37,000 lives lost on U.S. roads and highways last year, it is critical that policymakers support the safety benefits of fully self-driving technology. The United States cannot continue to witness these year-over-year increases in traffic fatalities. Human error causes 94 percent of all motor vehicle crashes, due to mistakes like speeding, fatigue and drunk and distracted driving. By removing humans from the driving process, self-driving vehicles offer an opportunity to significantly reduce the number of our loved ones killed and injured in crashes each year.”
Forward Collision Prevention
- Forward collision warning (FCW) reduced front-to-rear crash rates 27% and front-to-rear injury crash rates 20%.
- Low-speed autonomous emergency braking (AEB) reduced front-to-rear crash rates 43% and front-to-rear injury crash rates 45%.
- FCW with AEB reduced front-to-rear-crash rates 50% and front-to-rear injury crash rates 56%.
- If all U.S. vehicles had FCW with AEB, about 1 million crashes and > 400,000 injuries could have been prevented in 2014.
Lane Departure Warning
- Lane departure warnings can reduce the rate of single-vehicle, sideswipe and head-on car accidents by 11 percent
- Lane departure warnings also decrease injury rates in those kinds of car accidents by 21 percent.
Blind Spot Detection:
- Blind-spot detection lowers the rate of all lane-change crashes by 14%
- Blind-spot detection lowers the rate of lane-change crashes with injuries by 23%
Even though the major responsibility still relies on the driver, blind spot detection provides additional information to the driver to make better decisions. As Cicchino, IIHS vice president for research said in a press release. “if every passenger vehicle on the road were equipped with blind-spot detection as effective as the systems we studied, about 50,000 police-reported crashes a year could be prevented.”
Backup Collision Avoidance
Compared with vehicles with no backup assistance features, vehicles that are equipped with backup collision avoidance features can reduce car crashes to a different extent.
- Cross-traffic alert reduces backing crashes by 22%
- The combination of rear-view cameras and sensors reduces crashes by 42%
- Rear automatic emergency braking reduces backing crashes by 78%
Night Vision
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that most pedestrian traffic accident deaths in 2017 occurred in urban areas (78%), open roads (72%), intersections (18%), and nighttime (74%). The highest number of pedestrian deaths occurred on Saturday (991), while most deaths occurred at night (791). * The night vision function of the product may be a very important key point.
Who is at the most risk?
1.Teen drivers
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic crashes are a leading cause of death for teens 15 to 18 years old. In 2017, 755 teen drivers died in crashes, and a total of 2,038 teen drivers were involved in crashes where someone died. Also, the estimated death of teenagers aged between 13 to 19 years old is 2,734 annually, which is 7 deaths per day on average.
2.Elderly drivers
In 2017, almost 7,700 older adults (aged 65+) were killed in car accidents, and more than 257,000 were severely injured. This means that each day, approximately 20 elderly drivers are killed, and an additional 700 are injured in car accidents which made elder drivers the most at risk among all the drivers in the United States.
- Truck drivers
In 2017, 4,657 large trucks were involved in fatal crashes, an increase of 9% over 2016 and an increase of 45% since 2009. Large trucks are defined as any medium or heavy trucks with a total weight exceeding 10,000 pounds, excluding buses and car houses. Also in 2017, there were 107,000 large truck crashes that caused personal injuries, an increase of 5% over 2016.
