Pedestrian-Detection Technology Could Save Millions of Dollars and Lives

A recent Status Report newsletter published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that pedestrian-recognition technology could potentially avert thousands of vehicle crashes every year, saving lives and millions of dollars in repair costs and insurance premium increases. Developing and implementing this new kind of technology should be considered the next logical step toward greater public safety, similar to automated surveillance cameras at intersections, according to the IIHS report.

There have already been major advances in pedestrian-recognition technology by several car manufacturing companies; Volvo has integrated it into their new S60 sedan. According to Volvo’s website, “The Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Detection system fitted in the 2011 model S60 was first announced early last year. It uses a computer fed by information from a wide-angle radar system that detects objects and monitors their speed and distance from the car, and from a camera fitted near the rear view mirror. Using this information the computer identifies the objects and determines if they are on a collision path.”

If a collision is imminent the car gives the driver an audible and visual warning and brakes hard if the driver does not react quickly enough. At speeds under 35 km/h a collision is prevented, while at higher speeds it may not be possible to avoid a collision but the impact and subsequent injuries are reduced.

“The best way to protect pedestrians is to separate them as much as possible from vehicle traffic,” IIHS senior researcher David Zuby states in the IIHS report. However, Zuby continued by saying that pedestrians and vehicles are always going to have to exist in close proximity with each other, so caution on both sides is always going to be necessary. However, these new warning systems could help diminish the severity of accidents between people and vehicles.

Both the general public as well as auto insurers would significantly benefit from using this type of technology: it would make the streets safer for everyone and bring down accident claims, since damages incurred from pedestrian crashes are normally paid through the vehicle owner’s bodily injury liability insurance and personal injury protection for pedestrians.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2009 that there were almost 60,000 pedestrians hurt and 5,000 who were killed in traffic accidents. A 2010 New York City Department of Transportation report shows that crashes involving pedestrians cost that city alone $1.38 billion per annum in various legal, medical and insurance expenses.

“Technology has the potential to avert many of these crashes altogether,” the IIHS report continues. “Automakers are developing systems to spot pedestrians entering a vehicle’s path and to automatically brake if the driver fails to react.”

One major obstacle which the IIHS report highlights is the difficulty of adapting the pedestrian-recognition technology to work well in darkness. The NHTSA says that only about 31% of fatal crashes involving pedestrians and cars actually happened during daylight hours, when these kinds of visual recognition systems are the most accurate and effective.

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