Study reveals effectiveness of advanced car safety features

When car buyers in Tennessee and around the country visit dealer showrooms, safety is often one of their primary concerns. Auto manufacturers are aware of this, and they have introduced a range of safety features in recent years that are designed to warn drivers about potentially dangerous situations and prevent accidents. Some road safety experts worry that drivers who put too much faith in these safety systems may actually be more likely to crash, but a recent study from the market research company J.D. Power suggests that vehicle owners do not share this view.

More than half of the vehicle owners surveyed by J.D. Power who bought cars, SUVs or pickup trucks equipped with backup cameras, blind spot alerts or collision prevention systems said that the features helped them to avoid a crash within 90 days of leaving the showroom. Data to back up these claims is sparse because government statistics do not provide information about car accidents that do not happen, but dealers report selling far fewer replacement parts for vehicles that have advanced safety systems.

Auto makers know that promoting safety is good for business, and industry giants including General Motors and Volvo believe that autonomous and semi-autonomous systems have the potential to eliminate traffic accident fatalities entirely. Safety features that were only available on expensive luxury models just a few years ago can now be found in economy cars, and car makers have vowed to make automatic braking systems standard equipment on virtually all passenger vehicles sold in the United States by 2022.

When vehicles with these features are involved in an accident, experienced personal injury attorneys representing those who suffered injuries may seek to have them inspected. This is because the information recorded by black box-type devices could reveal how fast vehicles were moving when they crashed and what actions their drivers took to avoid a collision. This information may then be used to establish negligence in court.