|
The single biggest factor in vehicle safety isn't the latest technology, air bags, electronics or driver skill. According to Dr. Philip Hessburg, chairman of the internationally recognized The Eye and the Auto symposium and president of the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology, the single biggest factor in vehicle safety is the driver's vision.
Information from such safety experts as Leonard Evans supports Hessburg. Evans' book "Traffic Safety" notes that vision provides motorists more than 90 percent of the information used to drive.
"I can't imagine anything being more important than the ability of the driver to see clearly through the windshield," said Dr. Hessburg, noting that reduced visibility is a factor in 42 percent of all vehicle crashes and safety research reveals collision risk usually increases by 50 to 100 percent during precipitation.
Much of the elevated risk during rainfall appears to be related to visibility, since collision rates quickly return to near normal after the rain has stopped, even if roads continue to be wet. And snowfall has an even greater effect than rainfall on collision occurrence.
Fortunately, one of the easiest ways to help drivers' vision is also one of the least expensive solutions: checking and replacing worn wiper blades with new blades, such as the new Michelin advanced frameless design wiper blades.
"The primary inputs for nearly all of your driving decisions are related to what you see," said Dr. Hessburg. "Virtually everything comes to your brain through your eyes." Some examples of primary visual inputs include:
• Turning, merging and changing lanes
• Recognizing the presence of pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcycles
• Traffic and road conditions.
Worn, torn or inefficient blades leave streaks, a film and an inconsistent view of the road that can limit vision or delay driver judgments.
Michelin's expertise in creating a rubber compound that allows your tires to grip the road in all kinds of weather has inspired the development of a high-perfor-mance, all-weather wiper blade with many innovative features and benefits, including patented M-Guard Advanced Rubber Technology™. The advanced design eliminates the framework, joints and openings of conventional blades that can clog with snow, ice and debris.
By: Stacey Moore
|