Highway Death Toll Messages Cause More Crashes
hubie writes:
As described over at ScienceDaily, a paper in Science out of the University of Minnesota found that those signs put up by various highway departments informing the drivers of how many people have died on that section of the road apparently are distracting enough to cause more accidents than if they weren't put up in the first place.
Displaying the highway death toll on message boards is a common awareness campaign, but new research shows this tactic actually leads to more crashes. This new study evaluated the effect of displaying crash death totals on highway message boards (e.g., '1669 deaths this year on Texas roads'). Versions of highway fatality messages have been displayed in at least 27 US states.
The study looked at highway statistics in Texas, where these kind of signs are put out one week each month. They found there were more crashes during the week when the signs were out, estimated to add 2600 crashes and 16 deaths per year. They suggest that this "in-your-face" messaging adds to the driver "cognitive loading." There was also a correlation between the number of deaths posted on the sign and the number of accidents.
"Distracted driving is dangerous driving," said Madsen. "Perhaps these campaigns can be reimagined to reach drivers in a safer way, such as when they are stopped at an intersection, so that their attention while driving remains focused on the roads."
Source Article:
Highway death toll messages cause more crashes
Journal Reference:
Jonathan D. Hall, Joshua M. Madsen. Can behavioral interventions be too salient? Evidence from traffic safety messages. Science, 2022; 376 (6591)
DOI: 10.1126/science.abm3427
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