HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, April 22, 2022 (HealthDay Information) — Displaying freeway demise tolls on roadside message boards in a bid to curb crashes may very well trigger extra accidents, a brand new examine suggests.
That is as a result of they distract drivers, the researchers mentioned.
At the very least 27 states have used such messages. The brand new report targeted on Texas, the place officers determined to show freeway demise tolls one week of each month.
“Folks have restricted consideration,” mentioned examine co-author Joshua Madsen, an assistant professor within the College of Administration on the College of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “When a driver’s cognitive load is already maxed out, including on an attention-grabbing, sobering reminder of freeway deaths [can] change into a harmful distraction.”
For the examine, Madsen and his workforce in contrast Texas crash information from January 2010 to July 2012, earlier than the marketing campaign, to August 2012 to December 2017 when it was underway. In addition they checked out weekly variations every month in the course of the marketing campaign.
The investigators discovered that there have been 4.5% extra crashes alongside the ten kilometers (6.21 miles) of freeway the place demise numbers have been displayed throughout weeks once they have been proven than in message-free weeks.
The rise is corresponding to elevating the pace restrict 3 to five miles per hour or decreasing freeway troopers by 6% to 14%, earlier analysis reveals.
The findings, revealed April 21 within the journal Science , counsel that every yr highway fatality messages induced an added 2,600 crashes and 16 deaths in Texas.
That is as a result of this “in-your-face” messaging about highway deaths quickly impacts drivers’ capability to reply to modifications in visitors situations, the examine authors mentioned in a college information launch.
The researchers additionally discovered that the extra crashes related to the messages elevated because the demise toll rose. The best quantity occurred in January, when messages displayed the earlier yr’s whole variety of deaths.
The examine additionally confirmed that crashes elevated in areas the place drivers required better focus, resembling heavy visitors or driving previous a number of message boards.
Based on examine co-author Jonathan Corridor, “The messages additionally elevated the variety of multivehicle crashes, however not single-vehicle crashes.” Corridor is an assistant professor within the College of World Affairs and Public Coverage on the College of Toronto in Canada.
“That is in keeping with drivers with elevated cognitive masses making smaller errors on account of distraction, like drifting out of a lane, slightly than driving off the highway,” Corridor added.
The researchers did discover a discount in crashes when the displayed demise tolls have been low and when messages have been proven in areas the place highways have been much less advanced.
Total, the findings counsel that states ought to take into account different methods of elevating consciousness about highway security, based on Madsen.
“Distracted driving is harmful driving,” he mentioned. “Maybe these campaigns may be reimagined to succeed in drivers in a safer method, resembling when they’re stopped at an intersection, in order that their consideration whereas driving stays targeted on the roads.”
Extra data
The U.S. Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration has sensible tricks to preserve you protected.
SOURCE: College of Minnesota, information launch, April 21, 2022
