Avoiding Rear-End Collisions

Reported May 2008

ATLANTA, Ga. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- If you spend a lot of time in traffic, chances are you've either had or almost had a traffic accident. One of the most common kinds of accidents are rear-end collisions. There were one-point-eight million of them in 2006 -- that's 29-percent of all the injury crashes in the United States; but now, researchers say they may be on the road to preventing them.

After more than 20 years of driving, Chris Palmer just had his first accident. He's far from alone. Multiple car crashes total over six million a year in the United States. Thirty-one percent are rear-end collisions. Since 2004, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has done simulations like this to test the safety of vehicles in rear-end crashes; but graduate student Nicholas Kelling wanted to know more about the human factors involved.

Georgia tech engineering psychologists created this animation to simulate a rear-end collision scenario and test drivers' braking behavior. They found that drivers generally aren't able to detect when the car in front of them is going slower than they are, unless the difference in speed is at least eight to ten miles an hour.

"Well, if people can't detect that the car in front of them is going slower, you're going to run into it," Gregory Corso, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, told Ivanhoe.

Safety devices are designed to protect you if a crash happens, but now, these researchers have developed an algorithm they say could prevent many rear-end crashes from happening by creating a collision warning system that adjusts to the way you drive. "[It] incorporate[s] your driving style and your braking behavior and learn basically how you stop the car and modify its behavior to mimic your behavior," Dr. Corso explained.

"And we could put it into a warning system to tell people that the car in front of them is not going as fast as they are, and either stop the car or slow up," Nicholas Kelling, a graduate teaching assistant at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told Ivanhoe.

Technology that could one day mean safer cars and fewer rear-end collisions. More than just dangerous, rear-end collisions carry a high price tag in the United States. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says the cost of treating neck and back injuries from rear-end collisions has spiked to $8.5 million a year.

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Santa Monica, CA 90406
(310) 394-1811
http://www.hfes.or

Nick Kelling
Georgia Institute of Technology
(404) 385-4629 (office)
nicholas.kelling@psych.gatech.edu

Researchers are developing smart, new dummy technology.

One of the most common kinds of accidents are rear-end collisions. Researchers say they may be on the road to preventing them.

Truckers often work more than 50 hours a week and can legally drive for up to eleven hours non-stop. With extra-long hours on the highway, exhaustion is a big concern. Now, virtual reality is being used to help make roads safer.

Each year, more than three million people are injured in car accidents, and every 12 minutes, someone dies in a crash. With so many cars on the road, it's a trend that's likely to continue and get worse! But now, high-tech crashes helping save lives.

You can be part of the scientific process studying global warming, just by observing what's blooming in your own backyard.

Every day, weather forecasters are put to the test for accurate daily predictions. It's a hard job that gets blamed for rained-out picnics, cancelled barbecues and delayed planes; but today, our forecasts are more accurate than any other time in history.

Every year, early warnings about dangerous thunderstorms -- even tornadoes and hurricanes -- help get millions of people out of harms way before the danger comes. Now, scientists are worried about a new threat: dust storms.

There's increasing research that environment plays a key role in causing asthma attacks, but how do you know what triggers your asthma? Researchers think they may have the answer.

Blind students are about to speed up their learning curve thanks to a new "smart" pen. Did you know, just three characters of Braille take up an inch on a page? This new pen can condense that information into just one smart dot.

Dyslexia can be a frustrating condition, making it difficult for children to read. Many think it is a visual issue, but a new study using a computer game reveals the problem may not only be with sight, but also sound.

The terms, symbols and patterns of mathematics are often confusing, but two choreographers have calculated a way to put the rhythm in problem-solving.

Astrophysicists are providing new insight on how the Earth's moon was created and what makes it special.