A few weeks ago, I saw a bit on Dateline NBC about Insurance Institute of
Highway Safety crash tests on several midsize cars. After watching the
show I wrote a letter to Brian O'Neill, head of IIHS, asking why IIHS
concentrated so much on vehicles and not as much on drivers, considering
that most crashes are caused by driver error. (I've included my letter
below)
I received a reply from Mr. O'Neill today, which is below my letter. The
interesting thing is that he also included a study that he and one other
person had done back in 1973 comparing on-road accident rates for SCCA
competition license holders versus people of identical ages and genders who
did not hold licenses. This was done to examine the validity of a
"master's drivers license" that was being proposed at the time which would
allow people demonstrating special ability to have special privileges on
the road. The conclusion based on about 500 competition drivers in
Florida, New York, and Texas was that competition drivers had higher crash
rates and higher violation rates than the control group. I will try to get
this study scanned in, although if anyone has access to any old journals
possibly someone else could find it online. Just thought people might be
interested. I definitely think a "master's drivers license" would be good,
and I think race drivers are better drivers. Unfortunately this particular
report does not support that conclusion.
The crash rates in the study were
Florida
race drivers 0.28 crashes/driver
comparison group 0.14
p=0.02
New York
race drivers 0.64
comparison 0.42
p=0.001
Texas
race drivers 0.58
comparison 0.49
p>0.10
(thus not statistically valid)
Williams, Allan F., and O'Neill, Brian. "On-the road driving records of
licensed race drivers." Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 6, p.
263-270, Pergamon Press 1974.
(revised November 15 1973, in revised form January 25, 1974)
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Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
1005 N. Glebe Road, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22201 USA
Dear Mr. O'Neill,
I watched with interest the program about your crash tests on
Dateline this evening, and then I looked over your website. I can't help
but notice the lack of emphasis on driver training other than graduated
licenses and videos for teen drivers. While the desire to make safer cars
is admirable, isn't the safest car the one that is not involved in an
accident? A vast majority of automobile accidents are caused by driver
error, and nothing is being done to prevent this.
I am curious how come an institute devoted to increasing vehicle safety is
not advocating such things as skid training and threshold braking for young
and old drivers. A snowy mountain road at night is not the place to learn
how to catch a sliding car and a panic stop in a neighborhood when a child
runs in front of you is not the correct place to learn how to use ABS and
steer around an obstacle. These should be taught as early in a driver's
career as possible, in a safe controlled environment with a qualified
instructor. In addition, drivers need to be taught better mental
skills. People should be taught to look 10-12 seconds down the road so
they are prepared for what lies ahead, instead of the typical second or two
most people seem to look ahead. Being this prepared and realizing how this
helps will hopefully cause people to realize the stupidity of cell phones
and lunch while driving.
I can attest to the value of such training. I began autocrossing in 1993,
when I was 18. Autocrossing is a contest where a single car at a time
drives around a course lined with cones on a vacated parking lot or
airfield. Most of these contests are sponsored by the Sports Car Club of
America, although some are independently sanctioned. The skills I have
learned in the sport have helped me to avoid many potential accidents on
the street. Looking ahead allows me to see and avoid problems early, and
the familiarity with driving the car at its limit helps me avoid accidents
when something truly unexpected does happen. Since I am used to braking at
the vehicle's limit and turning, when something pops out in front of me I
can brake and turn to avoid it without panicking or overdriving the car and
causing a skid. I am happy to say that in eleven years of driving, I have
not been involved in (at fault or not at fault) an accident, and much of
this is due to skills learned in autocrossing. (Incidentally I autocross a
'98 Camaro Z28. I also drive much of the time on the street in a 1990
Crown Victoria station wagon.)
I am happy that I have been able to be a safe driver, and I would love to
see every other driver on the street have the same car control skills to
help them avoid accidents as well. It concerns me greatly that IIHS
portrays itself as a leader in the safety industry yet ignores the most
vital issue of car control skills. I am concerned about the fact that the
insurance industry, which is in business to make money, is funding your
research. Of course, insurance companies don't want to see an end to
accidents and their business. They would rather see people have accidents
and not be hurt, so they can raise premiums but not have to pay large
medical bills. Thus the emphasis IIHS has on safer cars only. Safer
drivers mean less money for insurance companies. I sincerely hope that
this will be rectified in the future and that IIHS will live up to its name
and make safer highways by improving all components of the vehicle system,
including the brains behind the wheel.
Sincerely,
J. Matthew Carson
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Dear Mr. Carson,
This is in response to your letter of May 28, 2002 concerning driver education.
Contrary to the claims in your letter, the Institute has addressed the
issue of driver educatoin and/or training. The fact is that, when
undertaken, scientific evaluations of driver education and/or training have
failed to demonstrate that these programs reduce crashes. Evaluations of
driver education programs that incorporated skid pad training found that
such training actually increased crashes, most likely because it made the
group of young drivers overconfident. Many years ago we did research
showing that competition license holders of the Sports Car Club of America
had worse on-the-road crash records than a comparison group of normal
drivers. The attached reports summarize some of the key research on this
subject.
While I agree that the "vast majority of automobile accidents are caused by
driver error," I disagree with you that "nothing is being done to prevent
this." The driver errors that cause most crashes involve motorists who are
either breaking traffic laws or not paying attention. For example, the
most frequent cause of injury-producing crashes in urban ares is motorists
ignoring traffic signals or stop signs, and on rural roads most serious
crashes involve motorists exceeding posted speed limits. The Institute and
many other groups have focused significant efforts on ways to improve
driver compliance with traffic laws. The issue of drivers not paying
attention (or being distracted) also is the focus of much attention, but it
is harder to address. The basic educational message for drivers should be:
Obey all traffic laws and pay attention. If all drivers did this we would
have far fewer crashes.
Sincerely,
Brian O'Neill
President
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My own comments: The study does not address many things, such as who is at
fault in the accidents in the study. As far as the cause of crashes on
urban roads, I agree with Mr O'Neill that most are caused by people not
obeying traffic laws. A lot of these could be solved by people looking
ahead. As for crashes on rural highways being caused by speed, there is no
proof that I have seen that these are _caused_ by speed. I suppose some
could have been, but the highway patrol has been quick to use that as a
cause when in reality lack of driver skill or loss of attention is the true
cause. I would say that a majority of drivers speed on rural highways, so
that stat may be misleading.
-Matt
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