According to one recent report, new car designs have been a significant contributory factor to an uptick in the number of RTAs on British roads.
Over the past two years, the number of ‘blind spot’ car accident claims has risen by 48 per cent, according to a crash management firm’s analysis, with more than 150,000 accidents occurring every year due to motorists changing lanes without checking their blind spot. With the European Union insisting on more strict safety regulations in order to protect vehicle occupants from becoming injured in motor vehicle accidents due to the lighter material used in modern car construction, support behind the driver and rear passenger compartments has thickened, resulting in larger blind spots through limitations in rear visibility.
The issue has become so prevalent that the Driving Standards Agency had no choice but to disallow the use of Mini convertibles during their motor vehicle tests in 2005 due to the fact that examiners had been complaining about the lack of rear visibility whilst operating the vehicle. In order to counteract the issue, many of the larger car manufacturers have begun to introduce highly sophisticated camera systems in order to give the driver advance warning of how close other vehicles have come to the car and whether the vehicle has begun to drift out of its lane, features that industry experts hope will work to reduce the number of accidents on the road.
The recent study, which collated data from 50,000 traffic accident claims, was based off accidents which occurred from as far back as 2009 to as recent as June of this year, according to industry experts familiar with the research.