Newswise — BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Technologies in vehicles continue to evolve and provide added elements of safety on the road. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reviewed recent literature that showed advanced driver assistance systems are likely to reduce crashes, injuries and deaths that involve passenger vehicles.
“The updated statistical estimates show that equipping cars with ADAS could help save lives,” said Austin M. Svancara, a lifespan developmental psychology graduate student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and collaborator on the paper. “We hope that, as these lifesaving technologies become more readily available, there will be greater public awareness of these systems and their functionality. Consumers should consider the benefits of these technologies as they look to purchase new vehicles.”
Researchers looked at the injury and death rates of passenger vehicle crashes where an ADAS, such as forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance and blind spot monitoring systems, could have been beneficial. The integration of ADAS in passenger vehicles — specifically cars, trucks, vans and SUVs — are estimated to have the potential to prevent 40 percent of all passenger-vehicle crashes, 37 percent of injuries that occur in passenger-vehicle crashes and 29 percent of deaths in crashes that involve passenger vehicles.
Svancara was a research intern at the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety over the summer, which gave him the opportunity to conduct the statistical analysis research and collaborate on the paper.
About UAB
Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center, as well as Alabama’s largest employer, with some 23,000 employees, and has an annual economic impact exceeding $7 billion on the state. The pillars of UAB’s mission include education, research, innovation and economic development, community engagement, and patient care. Learn more at www.uab.edu. UAB: Powered by will.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a separate, independent institution from the University of Alabama, which is located in Tuscaloosa. Please use University of Alabama at Birmingham on first reference and UAB on all subsequent references.
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