In the past years, there is an increasing number of pedestrian deaths recorded. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that 5, 977 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents from 2017. Imagine, that is about one person killed every 88 minutes.
The good news is, both the government and engineers have come up with technology devices that aim to prevent further fatal pedestrian accidents.
In using technology as their excellent resource, engineers have advanced for road safety and management, gradually reducing the lives lost from road crashes.
Here are the top 3 smart technologies that can prevent deaths in intersections.
Smart Signs
It is an established fact that traffic cones and traffic signals play an integral role in road safety, traffic management, and the flow of vehicles on the road. Pedestrians and drivers alike can face risks that may endanger their lives while on the road if not for these road and traffic signs. What’s even better is that engineers have created technologically advanced traffic signs.
Smart signs are the ingenious breakthroughs of pedestrian safety and management. One of the useful things about smart signs is that regardless of any road conditions, it is able to detect road mishaps which can warn drivers and motorists ahead of time. Thus, smart signs prevent fatal casualties that may occur on roads and pedestrians.
As high-tech warning signs, smart signs are useful in both rural and urban roads. Rural roads have even more dangerous intersections when compared to urban roads.
This explains why an increasing number of fatalities are traced back to rural road accidents. As smart signs use sensors, cameras, and GPS, it guarantees safe road management.
Automatic Emergency Braking Equipment
Nowadays, most vehicles are equipped with the latest automatic emergency braking technology to reduce the impact of a severe road collision or accident. Automatic braking is a helpful feature that allows drivers to gauge the braking capacity of their vehicles.
In some worst-case scenarios, this emergency braking technology acts independently to minimize fatalities and wounds that a person could have sustained from an accident.
If the built-in system of this automatic emergency braking equipment detects that a severe crash or collision is about to happen, it alerts the driver of the vehicle to take preemptive action.
Now, if such action is not taken before the crash, the system will counteract it by applying the automatic braking equipment of the vehicle. As such, the severe collision that could have happened has been minimized and the impact of the crash has been reduced.
Lane Departure Warning Devices
Another breakthrough technology that reduces pedestrian deaths is the lane departure warning device. This is aptly called the lane departure warning (LDW) system because it has been helpful in many drivers and motorists.
This system uses a camera in monitoring the lane marks in which the driver of the vehicle is taking the route. Now, if the vehicle strays out of the lane, the LDW system will detect it, and in turn, it will send a signal to the driver of the vehicle.
When your car touches a lane marker, this system will notify you right away. Usually, the warning is through a flashing sign or a beeping sound on the side of your car.
While in some installed systems, the warning comes in vibrating the steering wheel of the car or the driver’s seat. The system is either activated by pressing a button in the car or it automatically works if the car is turned on.
The lane departure warning device helps reduce the fatalities of a crash especially if a driver feels sleepy or drowsy.
Oftentimes, a cause of a car crash can be traced back to a drunk driver or a sleepy one. As such, this system has been effective in keeping drivers and motorists on their lanes thereby reducing any crashes that could have happened on the road.
Final Thoughts
Using technology to reduce pedestrian deaths has been an innovative way of advancing road safety management. As the numbers speak for themselves, increasing cases of deaths caused by pedestrian accidents should be acted upon.
Now, engineers have been the catalyst of coming up with technologically advanced road signs and devices that are useful in saving the lives of drivers and motorists.