Effectiveness of Daytime Running Lights to Reduce Crashes and Crash Injuries

摘要

While studies of the effects of daytime running lights (DRLs) on crash outcomes have generally been lacking in experimental rigor and power necessary to specify the magnitude of the safety effect DRLs create, they are consistent in finding that DRLs have a positive effect on traffic safety. Statistically significant DRL effects found in a study of DRL implementation in a large Canadian vehicle fleet were applied to data representing the totality of U.S. crash experience for 1989. Based on these analyses, DRL implementation could be expected to prevent between 200,744 and 380,845 property-damage crashes, 98,839 to 209,052 personal-injury crashes, 165,673 to 335,630 nonfatal injuries, 42 to 3,129 fatal crashes, and 396 to 4,542 deaths each year. The ranges are based on the 95% confidence limit around the high and low reduction estimates.