The growth of automatic emergency braking systems undercuts a common gripe about red light safety cameras by preventing rear-end crashes that can occur when drivers stop short, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows.
Red light safety cameras reduce the dangerous right-angle crashes that often cause injuries or fatalities when drivers run red lights. But the devices are also associated with an increase in less severe rear-end crashes due to a rise in sudden stops at equipped intersections.
The new IIHS study shows that the increasing prevalence of automatic emergency braking (AEB) will mitigate that unfortunate side effect.
“Red light running causes extremely dangerous, high-speed side crashes, so red light safety cameras are an essential intervention,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “This study illustrates that AEB helps address one of their few downsides, which hopefully can help accelerate their deployment in intersections across the country.”
In 2023, more than a thousand people were killed and more than 135,000 were injured in crashes that involved a driver running a red light.
Researchers found if no vehicles on the road had AEB, red light safety cameras would be associated with a seven per cent decrease in all crashes at the intersections where they are used.
However, since 2023, more than 28 per cent of the US fleet has been equipped with AEB, according to analyses conducted by the Highway Loss Data Institute. With that many AEB-equipped vehicles on the road, the reduction in crashes ticks up to eight per cent.
“This is a great example of a vehicle technology and an infrastructure solution working in tandem to produce better results,” said IIHS Senior Transportation Research Engineer Wen Hu, the lead author of the study.
