Does Human Error Cause 94% of Car Crashes?

Reports, announcements, statistics from NHTSA, NTSB, FHWA, IIHS, and others related to Highway Safety
MSI
Site Admin
Posts: 2302
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:37 pm

Does Human Error Cause 94% of Car Crashes?

Post by MSI »

An article by David Zipper in the Atlantic today The Deadly Myth That Human Error Causes Most Car Crashes which he subtitles: Every year thousands of Americans die on the roads. Individuals take the blame for systemic problems.

DISCUSSION: The author ignored the 1965 Highway Safety Act, the many changes and improvements suggested by NHTSA, NTSB and FHWA and other organizations which were created after the 1965 highway safety act.
Progress takes time and HUMAN resistance to change in the US is a major impediment.
It took 20 years to implement safety belt laws:
  • By 1965 vehicle manufacturers put them in, but HUMANS didn't use them!
  • Laws to enforce and require seat belt use did not happen until around 1988!
  • HUMAN Error was the resistance of drivers to wearing seatbelts.
See my Book Review: Ralph Nader, Vehicle Safety & GM Damage Control for more information on progress in highway and vehicle safety.

Some interesting, but many misguided, points made in the article The Deadly Myth That Human Error Causes Most Car Crashes:
  • U.S. road fatalities have risen by more than 10 percent over the past decade,
  • In the European Union, whose population is one-third larger than America’s, traffic deaths dropped by 36 percent between 2010 and 2020
    • That downward trend is no accident: European regulators have pushed carmakers to build vehicles that are safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and governments regularly adjust road designs after a crash to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.
  • in the United States, the responsibility for road safety largely falls on the individual sitting behind the wheel, or riding a bike, or crossing the street. American transportation departments, law-enforcement agencies, and news outlets frequently maintain that most crashes—indeed, 94 percent of them, according to the most widely circulated statistic—are solely due to human error.
  • Blaming the bad decisions of road users implies that nobody else could have prevented them. That enables car companies to deflect attention from their decisions to add heft and height to the SUVs and trucks that make up an ever-larger portion of vehicle sales, and it allows traffic engineers to escape scrutiny for dangerous street designs.
  • In 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation, published a two-page memo declaring that “the critical reason, which is the last event in the crash causal chain, was assigned to the driver in 94% of the crashes.” The memo, which was based on the NHTSA’s own analysis of crashes, then offered a key caveat: “Although the critical reason is an important part of the description of events leading up to the crash, it is not intended to be interpreted as the cause of the crash.”
  • “The 94 percent line is a repeated reference at almost every state [department of transportation] conference I’ve ever attended,” Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told me.
  • What we need most is a reexamination of how carmakers, traffic engineers, and community members—as well as the traveling public—together bear responsibility for saving some of the thousands of lives lost annually on American roadways. Blaming human error alone is convenient, but it places all Americans in greater danger.
MSI
Site Admin
Posts: 2302
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:37 pm

Re: Does Human Error Cause 94% of Car Crashes?

Post by MSI »

A post to Linked in included
  • Anyone guilty of repeating the misleading cliche & deadly myth that 94% of road crashes are caused by driver error should read this superb article by DavidZipper in The Atlantic. And there is a very long list of culprits including Govt Ministers, Car industry bosses, AV enthusiasts either unknowingly or deliberately misrepresenting the complexity of crash causation & the significant role of system design errors.
To which i responded:
  • Look back to the USA 1965 safe roads act...focus was ONLY on vehicle and roadway design and ignored that safety devices in vehicles (Seat Belts? took 20 years before the legislated laws), Speeding? (studies have shown speeding wreaks as much havoc as DUI yet we don't penalize as much??!!), DUI, it took decades before true enforcement
    SO
    there is a LOT of 'human error' in the safety/crash reconstruction equation...
    maybe not 94% but probably not much less? How do you quantify?
    And the question not only of cause but also effects (failure to PAY ATTENTION to the driving task, use seatbelts, etc cause MORE injuries and death)...
    Why do we not compel cell phone and vehicle manufacturers to enact technology (which is available!) to STOP or REDUCE folks talking and texting while driving?
    We need drivers to PAY ATTENTION TO THE DRIVING TASK!!
    There are no easy solutions.
For more discussion See Above
Post Reply