Why Not? Black Box for Cars
When we started this column last year, FORBES challenged us to report back if any why-not ideas make it to the product shelf. Road Safety International offers an inspiring example of bringing a why-not idea to market. Driving a car is one of the most dangerous things people do. There are 24 million auto accidents a year, and 2.4 million people are injured in them. Annually, the number of auto fatalities would be equivalent to the deaths from a 737 plane crash every day.
Most of us don't want to think about the dangers of driving. That fatalistic attitude is wrong. It's possible to make automobiles safer and make money in the process. To see how, take a lesson from airplanes. The first thing people do after a plane crash is look for the "black box" (more formally known as the event data recorder). Why not a black box for cars? It would allow police and carmakers to understand what happened just before the crash. The traditional way of reconstructing events, looking at skid marks and steel deformation, is extremely unreliable.
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It isn't only that black boxes can make cars safer. They can also make safer drivers. The Berlin highway safety administration found that after the city's police department started using data recorders in their patrol cars, damage during rescue trips fell by 36%. Also in Germany, a taxi company installed these boxes in its fleet and collision rates fell by 66%. In the U.S., Sunstar Emergency Medical Services found that black boxes reduced its ambulance accidents by 95%. If there were a drug as effective in saving lives, people would be clamoring outside the Food & Drug Administration for its approval.
Just knowing the box is there changes drivers' behavior. Fear of getting caught may be a more powerful motivator than fear of getting killed....