Safety features are often considered to be generally a good thing when it comes to buying a vehicle; after all, who does not want to keep their family safer on the roads? However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently conducted a survey where a different side of these features was shared by drivers. Even though systems such as rear-view cameras have been shown to reduce the occurrence of collisions as well as injuries in the case of an accident, drivers reported that it was difficult to repair these features on the vehicle. IIHS has a vested interest in solving these challenges, both in terms of lowering costs to insurers in the case of an accident and encouraging the adoption of these features by drivers to prevent accidents and injuries overall.
Over 3,000 drivers participated in the survey, a minority of whom reported needing to have crash avoidance features repaired. These respondents shared that the repair was far from straightforward, with many needing to have the feature fixed multiple times. They identified two main reasons this may be occurring:
- Scan tools used by technicians may not be up to standard, resulting in missed issues or misdiagnoses; and
- Failure to calibrate/validate that crash prevention systems are functional before closing out the repair (this could be due to a lack of knowledge about the system, unawareness of the issue at hand, or apathy about the importance of the feature).
Crash prevention technology is highly effective, IIHS points out, so it is worthwhile to investigate any issues that might be interfering with the performance of these tools. For example, a study recently found that automatic emergency braking (AEB) decreased rear-end crashes by 50%. This survey data indicates that even drivers who take pains to invest in these systems may run the risk of a breakdown or faulty repair, which could limit their efficacy. Individuals who are involved in an accident due to malfunctioning equipment or other reasons may need to seek restitution for any injuries sustained; anyone in this position can contact a Texas lawyer for support.
