Asleep at the Wheel:

Traffic safety in the USA

When I was a kid, the states used to put up white crosses at the scene of every fatal accident. Before too long it became apparent this wouldn't work, the crosses were everywhere.

During the 20th century, 250 million Americans were seriously injured in car crashes. The automobile has killed more than 3 million Americans, as compared to 650K killed in our nation's wars.

Most of these victims were young and healthy before the crash. Car accidents, not alien abductions or West Nile Virus, are the greatest cause of death for young people.

A majority driving today have never witnessed the aftermath of a serious crash firsthand. Professional truck drivers pass by one or two wrecks every day, with extensive Monday morning quarterbacking about what went wrong in CB radio chatter.

In 2,000,000 miles over 50 years on US roads, I actually witnessed ten serious accidents as they happened. There is nothing like the explosive impact, the fragments of chrome and glass flying, and human bodies tumbling end over end like a football, to drive home the extreme vulnerability we voluntarily assume each time we get in our cars.

Today the graphic evidence is available in police chase and accident videos. Youtube shows us squids, sometimes not wearing even rudimentary safety gear, falling off their motorcycles after failing miserably at stoopid show-off stunts.

Yet, in those fifty years, the percentage of drivers behaving aggressively and compulsively has skyrocketed.

US traffic deaths peaked in 1972, when 54,589 perished, a one year total similar to American combat losses during the entire Vietnam War. With a national 55-mph speed limit, seat belts, and eventually air bags, deaths declined to a flat rate around 42K per year.

Of course, this appears to be a great improvement, since an increasing number of cars and commercial trucks are driven greater distances every year.

But routinely, day after day in the U.S., despite continuing improvements in vehicle safety, a steady average of 120 people are killed in motor vehicle crashes.

38% of those killed were not driving, they were passengers or pedestrians.

Traffic mortalities have a male-to-female ratio of 2.2 to 1.

Cars Getting Safer

Cars have never been safer. Multiple air bags and engineered crumple zones protect vehicle occupants. Electronic stability control attempts to avoid crashes.

The focus of automotive safety technology is shifting from passive to active devices.

Passive safety refers to features such as seatbelts, crumple zones, and airbags, which do not change in response to a crash. These mostly revolve around dissipating crash energy away from a vehicle occupant's vulnerabilities.

Active safety involves systems which respond to feedback, continuously monitoring and responding to the vehicle's environment. These can preemptively intervene to avoid or mitigate damage in a crash.

Adaptive cruise control, electronic stability control, blind spot detection and lane departure warning are examples of active safety tech.

But, despite the veneer of technology, America has fallen behind other industrialized countries in traffic safety.

License to Kill: Drivers Getting Worse

America once had the world's safest roads. Not anymore.

England, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden have surpassed the US since 1980.

While US government agencies have focused on safety technology and bogged down in litigation, the winning countries have found the cause of most car crashes: driver incompetence.

Safety devices cannot keep pace with the geometric increase in driver stupidity. We lament the auto industry’s lack of safety progress while untrained drivers continue multitasking; makeup fixing, text messaging, burger-and-cupholder juggling, and late-for-big-meeting document study.

This is not a moralist piece, I have personally committed all the above, with the exception of the makeup.

The vast majority of crashes are the fault of drivers, not of machines.

An incredible 55% of US vehicle fatalities were not wearing seat belts, despite seatbelt use hitting a recent record high of 82%. New Hampshire is the only state without a mandatory belt use law.

Researchers at NHTSA found 80% of all crashes and 65% of near-crashes related to driver distraction or multitasking.

31% of drivers killed in 2005 were legally drunk.

The worst thing is that safety improvements have been accompanied by increased aggressive driving: some drivers feel bulletproof.

Their overconfidence is misguided, when that invincible SUV gets under an 18-wheeler, it will flatten like a beer can.

Safety Technology Marketing

A decade ago, Asia's upstarts, Infiniti, Lexus, and Acura, rode a wave of quality issues to the top of the US market. But today the quality gap is narrowing, so the focus has shifted to safety.

Growing demand for safety features is anticipated as consumer awareness increases. As critical mass is reached for each new innovation, prices fall. Marketing messages about safety and security reach out to female consumers, who now buy one-third of new vehicles and influence almost every other purchase.

"Industry experts" predict acceleration of the safety marketing trend. The problem is that uninformed consumers are so easily mislead when it comes to safety features. What consumers should look for is standard safety features, not "available."

Surveys reveal that 77% of new car buyers want side-impact airbags. These are rarely standard on lower segment cars.

Safety systems are often optional in lower-cost cars sold to the young and naive, and are often wrapped in expensive option groups. This effectively withholds safety technology from those who need it the most.

Advanced technology, like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection and lane departure warning, appears first on luxury cars.

A rarely mentioned problem is that technicians, in critically short supply, cannot keep up with these complex electronic safety systems. Shops attempting to stay current must invest money in training and new electronic tools. With the crisis at the dealership level, many dealers have no cash for these improvements.

Volvo long has been a leader in vehicle safety. Honda/Acura is a close second. Audi, Saab, and Subaru have done well in safety comparisons. Hyundai/Kia has made real progress.

But other brands, especially Chinese exports in the subcompact segment, are way behind. As the US car market downsizes, consumers should just say no to any car rated less than 5 stars for frontal, lateral, and rollover.

I would not buy a new car today without at least 6 airbags, including side curtains.

Articles on Auto Safety

Dangers of Distracted and Negligent Driving

Disc Vs. Drum Brakes on the New Small Cars

Automotive Safety: Wide Angle Blind Spot Mirrors

Tales of the Highway

These are safety and crash stories from my driving career. Some may be quite graphic, viewer discretion is advised.

My first Driving Instructor

First Motorcycle Passenger: Honda 50cc Super Cub 1965

Jimmy, the Sleeping Motorcycle Passenger

Sure Hope That's a Deer

A Brand New Harley Doesn't Make You Bullet Proof