As Cars Get Smarter Accident Rates Will Fall

February 21, 2017, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injury lawyers and insurance companies are beginning to see a reduction in the number of claims as the many new safety features begin rolling out with 'smarter' cars. Everything from rear backup cameras, to lane change sensors, to automatic braking and parking, has begun to make an impact in the driving safety world. Although the number of cars and drivers on the road is increasing each year, the number of accident claims are remaining relatively static. There is no reason to think that the trend will not continue as cars are loaded with more and more safety technology.

Any advancements that reduce personal injury, and the overall number of accidents is a good thing for consumers. It will lower insurance rates, provincial medical bills, and personal suffering. It is however, something that insurers, lawyers, and the whole rehab industry that has been created by personal injury must consider moving forward. Test programmes for self driving cars are already in place in many jurisdictions, and they are being carefully tracked. It is estimated however that it will be many decades before self driving cars become the most common car on the roads.

Many experts believe that is this ‘cross over’ time, when there are both autonomous and human driven cars on the road, which will be the most dangerous to people. Once all cars are computer operated they will be able to communicate with one another to fully avoid collisions. While there are still humans on the road driving, there will be the uncertainty of what decision a human makes in order to avoid a car accident. This uncertainty will be a contributing factor to accidents.

The question of concern for insurers and lawyers will be the assessment of fault in accidents in which there is no human driving. While cars are still driven by people, lawyers will have to determine what actions/inactions of their passengers contributed to accidents. Insurers will be left with ever diminishing premiums and presumably diminishing payouts as well. Without their giant reserves of funds to invest, will they be able to remain profitable in the long term?

Rehabilitation companies running chains of physiotherapy and rehab clinics, will also have to examine their roles in the future of accident injury recovery. The results of the many pilot projects with self driving cars may give us clues about the direction business will move in the future. Without question, there will be a huge shift in the entire personal injury and insurance business throughout the world. There may also be new opportunities presented by these technical advancements.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.