212249 Brake light system modifications to prevent rear-end vehicular crashes: Using basic computer technology to strengthen visual cues to the vehicle behind about the rate of deceleration

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Arthur E. Cohen, JD MPH , self-employed - Organization: b'more mobile, Baltimore, MD
        
BACKGROUND: Rear-end crashes represent the most common type of vehicular crash. They may take place at low speed in stop-and-go traffic and at higher speeds on highways. During the past eighty years, vehicular traffic has increased substantially. Despite many new ideas, there have been few significant improvements to brake lights, which provide the principal visual cue for drivers to slow or stop, but which only indicate that the driver in front is depressing the brake pedal. METHODS: Crashes could be prevented if the driver behind also had information about the rate of vehicular deceleration and whether the vehicle has stopped. Currently, the only basis for determining these conditions is by inference from the increasing size of the vehicle in front as it appears in the driver's visual field - difficult to do rapidly and accurately, especially at night. OUTCOMES: Current computer technology may be used to produce a brake light which can signal both the rate of deceleration and a full stop. A rapid sequence of fifty-five PowerPoint slides will demonstrate how one such re-designed brake light would function, and compare it to conventional brake lights. CONCLUSIONS: A well-crafted strategy will be required to promote adoption of any such improved brake lights, because the vehicular industry is notoriously resistant to mandated engineering changes. This strategy could begin with field testing and voluntary adoption over several years, after which federal regulations would be changed to require universal adoption of an improved brake light.

Learning Objectives:
Describe the frequency of rear-end vehicular crashes relative to the frequency of other types of vehicular crashes, and the visual cues used to indicate slowing and stopping to the driver behind. Demonstrate one example of computer engineering modifications resulting in a brake light system which can better prevent such crashes by providing more precise visual cues. Formulate a strategy to promote adoption of this improved brake light system.

Keywords: Injury Prevention, Motor Vehicles

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: In 2007, I submitted a written description of an improved brake light to injury prevention staff of the national advocacy group Public Citizen, and also shared the suggestion with faculty at the Department of Health Policy and Management of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I presented a poster session on public transportation and injury prevention at the 2007 APHA Annual Meeting (#4095.0, Board 2). In 2007, I made an oral presentation on public transportation and injury prevention at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2008, a similar but revised presentation was made at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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