Some of the most effective road safety technology ever developed can be cheaply installed on any vehicle, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Dogandlemon.com is recommending that all vehicle owners fit daytime running lights and reversing cameras to their vehicles. Both technologies can be easily installed by most home handymen at a minimal cost.
Daytime running lights are now fitted to many new cars, but can be retrofitted to virtually any vehicle.
According to European studies on the effectiveness of daytime running lights in improving road safety , the potential savings are:
- 25% of daytime multi-vehicle fatal accidents (11% of all non-pedestrian fatal accidents)
- 28% of daytime fatal pedestrian accidents (12% of all fatal pedestrian accidents)
- 20% of daytime multi-vehicle injury accidents
- 12% of daytime multi-vehicle property accidents
dogandlemon.com editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says:
“Daytime running lights are hugely effective and look very cool, but you don’t have to buy a new car to get them. You can buy daytime running lights online for way less than the cost of a cellphone."
Unlike spotlights and foglights, which often dazzle other drivers, daytime running lights are designed solely to be noticed. Thanks to LED technology, daytime running lights now use less electricity than some car stereos.
Daytime running lamps normally turn on automatically when the engine is switched on, and turn off automatically when the engine is switched off or the headlamps are switched on.
dogandlemon.com is also encouraging all motorists to fit reversing cameras – which display what's behind you – and parking sensors –which beep when the vehicle is approaching solid objects – to their vehicles. After a two year evaluation, dogandlemon.com decided that the two technologies work best when installed together.
Reversing cameras and parking sensors are now available online for under $50, although more sophisticated units may sell for much more.
Matthew-Wilson advises that larger dashboard display screens are far more effective than screens that are mounted inside the rear vision mirror.
“Screens that are mounted inside the rear vision mirror are not only very small, but they’re very hard to see in bright sunlight.”
Matthew-Wilson explains how his own camera and parking sensors may have saved a child's life:
“I was reversing out of a parking bay at a supermarket. Like all good drivers I checked my three rear mirrors. Just as I began to reverse, a sudden beep warned me that a small child was running straight past the rear of my car. She appeared from nowhere, running across the reversing camera screen, then disappeared past the vehicle. She was too short to show up in my rear view mirror. If I had not had a reversing camera and parking sensors fitted, I could easily have reversed straight over this child.”
Matthew-Wilson adds:
"Every two weeks a child is hospitalised with serious injuries received from a vehicle driving on a private driveway in New Zealand. On average, a further five children are killed annually.
“Reversing cameras on new cars often cost hundreds of dollars extra. You don’t have to put up with this. Buy and fit your own.”
“You may save a child’s life. You may also save yourself a fortune in accidental parking dents.”
