Does vehicle front crash prevention help stop rear-end collisions?

The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety has revealed that vehicles with front crash prevention, such as automatic breaking and forward collision warning, reduces rear-end crashes by up to 40 percent. Automatic breaking helps cars sense a collision with an upcoming vehicle and automatically applies the brakes. Forward collision warning alerts the driver of the danger of an upcoming rear-end collision.

The IIHS estimates that if all vehicles had such technology, there would be 700,000 fewer rear-end collisions in the U.S. per year.

These numbers are estimates, as many front crash prevention features are combined with other safety technology in newer models. Still, the results are promising, as it shows a significant reduction in rear-end collisions.

Front crash prevention becoming popular for newer models

While front-end crash prevention is becoming widespread, for most makes and models such technology is optional. As such, even newer vehicles may not be equipped with the new technology.

That is why the National highway Traffic Safety Administration and the IIHS have decided to work with car manufacturers to make automatic breaking and warning systems standard on all new models.

Automatic breaking systems reduce front-end crashes by 40 percent, while collision warning systems reduce crash risk by 23 percent.

Rear-end collisions remain significant safety risk

According to the NHTSA, the most common type of accident is a rear-end collision. About 40 percent of car accidents in the U.S. are rear-end collisions, meaning over 2.5 million rear-end collisions occur every year.

Injuries sustained in a rear-end collision can be significant, even at low speeds. This is because, by their nature, rear-end collisions take the driver of the hit car by surprise. The sudden jolting, even at low speeds, can mean spinal injuries, neck injuries, traumatic brain injuries and others. At high speeds rear-end collisions are among the most deadly.

Anytime an accident can be prevented it is a good thing. Ideally, increasing safety technology in vehicles will cut down on the number of people seriously injured or killed on the roads. Unfortunately, the day when people are safe from reckless, negligent and intoxicated drivers is still a long way off. And while front crash prevention technology remains promising and has already saved lives, more needs to be done.