Determining the cause of serious or fatal traffic accidents: We don’t see what we don’t expect.
More and more people are dying in motor vehicle accidents on our country’s roadways and researchers are working hard to determine all the reasons for these preventable tragedies. Read, “Why Are American Drivers So Deadly?” written by Matthew Shaer and published by New York Times Magazine on January 10, 2024. These fatalities involve not only car wrecks and semi-truck crashes, but pedestrian fatalities and those who perish in motorcycle accidents.
Pedestrian accidents, for instance, remain a national “safety crisis” with the dangers facing those walking on or near Chicago roadways facing a particularly high risk of deadly injuries in a collision with a motor vehicle. Read, “Pedestrian Deaths Fell Modestly Last Year, but There’s Still a Safety ‘Crisis’,” written by Joel Rose and published by NPR on February 27, 2024.
- For more on Chicago Pedestrian Accidents, see: Causes of Chicago Pedestrian Accidents and Chicago Pedestrian Accidents: How Dangerous Are Chicago Streets?
The danger is outrageously high for anyone on our roads, streets, highways, and interstates today. Consider this: last month, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) issued a news release regarding the need for an effective national safety strategy to deal with the risk of dying in a vehicular crash:
This year, the United States will mark a grim and tragic milestone: Four million roadway deaths since 1899. Every single one of these people left behind countless family members, friends, colleagues and neighbors. It’s impossible to fully comprehend the grief and tragedy caused by a single death, let alone four million. Something must change.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Roadway Safety Strategy provides a roadmap for preventing crashes, injuries and deaths by using a holistic approach of interconnected countermeasures. While roadway fatalities have declined slightly in the past year, this modest progress pales in comparison to the large increases we saw at the start of and during the height of the pandemic. The road to zero traffic deaths is long, but we know how to get there – doubling down on the strategies that improve safety. We need more equitable enforcement focused on dangerous driving behaviors, infrastructure that slows down speeding drivers and protects people outside of vehicles, community outreach and engagement programs, improved vehicle technology and better post-crash care.
We also must renew our sense of urgency in addressing this safety crisis….
Investigating the Cause of a Crash or Accident
While researchers and safety agencies concentrate on national trends and data analysis, for those advocating for accident victims and their loved ones, the focus after any roadway death involves the specifics of that particular crash. Accident victims and their loved ones have a legal right to independently investigate the crash in order to find all the possible causes for what happened.
Accident reconstruction experts and other specialists (in things like automotive parts, road design, etc.) may contribute invaluable information in the course of the accident investigation. Experts may also look into the actions or failures to act of the drivers involved in the accident as well as others on the scene at the time of the event (such as drivers and others that escaped the crash but may have contributed to making it happen).
One of the revelations in these investigations may be something called “expectancy violation.”
What is Expectancy Violation?
Essentially, human beings behind the wheel are bombarded with an almost infinitesimal amount of information at all times, particularly as technology advances. This technology is inside the vehicle being controlled by a driver, as well as attached to bars on motorcycles and in the hands or ears of those walking on our streets. It is also all around the roadways, from environment noises to traffic lights and billboards.
Humans are complex creatures. We are able to adapt to the bombardment by streamlining things and culling out lots of the excess. Humans also build patterns of predictability to use in assessing incoming information.
The problem is that that our predictions and expectations while driving or walking on dangerous roadways may be erroneous. Or there may be a variation in the routine, a glitch in standard behaviors. An exception to the general rule of things that can result in a tragic accident and untimely death.
This is deemed an “expectancy violation.” See, Dilich, Michael A., Dror Kopernik, and John Goebelbecker. “Evaluating driver response to a sudden emergency: Issues of expectancy, emotional arousal and uncertainty.” SAE Transactions (2002): 238-248.
Experts at the Federal Highway Administration explain it this way:
Expectancy relates to a driver’s readiness to respond to situations, events, and information in predictable and successful ways. It influences the speed and accuracy of information handling, and affects all aspects of highway design and operations, and information presentation. Aspects of the highway situation that are in accordance with prevalent expectancies aid the driving task, while expectancies that are violated lead to longer reaction time, confusion and driver error. Two classes of driver expectancy are operative throughout the driving task. The first are a priori expectancies that most drivers form through habit and experience, and that are brought into the task. The second are ad hoc ones that drivers form in transit based on the road and its environment. Each class of expectancy must be considered in the design and operation of the road and its information system. This report describes the concept of driver expectancy in the context of the driving task, and provides examples of expectancy and expectancy violations. It includes a procedure for identifying general and specific expectancy violations to enable engineers to develop remedial treatments to deal with expectancy problems.
Read, Alexander, Gerson J., and Harold Lunenfeld. Driver expectancy in highway design and traffic operations. No. FHWA-TO-86-1. United States. Federal Highway Administration, 1986.
Fatal Accidents Caused by Failure to Perceive Something or Someone in Plain Sight
There are many different reasons for fatal semi-truck crashes and deadly car accidents. It is impossible to confirm all the causes for any collision or wreck at the accident scene because too many factors are involved. The brakes may have failed because of a product defect. A vehicle may have escaped from the scene after the driver pulled into traffic and caused a collision. Bad weather conditions (particularly in our harsh winters) can contribute to traffic deaths.
One reason for fatal motor vehicle accidents that is arguably spiraling is the popularity of smart phones and connected vehicle technology like infotainment dash systems. For more, read our earlier discussions in: ARE DASHBOARDS DEADLY? VEHICLE INFOTAINMENT SYSTEMS AND FATAL ACCIDENTS and Hands-Free Devices Do Not Make Driving Safer: Cognitive Driver Distraction Using Hands-Free Phone.
A growing concern is the phenomenon of expectancy violation. Drivers can simply fail to differentiate an unexpected stimulus in their plain view because of a sort of blindness or block that happens as the brain tries to sort and compile a bombardment of stimuli.
The unexpected stimulus – a car, truck, motorcycle, or pedestrian – is not expected so it is not seen, with a horrific and life-altering result.
In these instances, accident investigations after the fact may attribute legal liability to a driver’s lack of awareness or cognitive distraction while operating a motor vehicle. There may be other liabilities to be assessed here, as well (such as the manufacturer or designer’s contributing cause of an infotainment system to the stimulus surrounding the driver at the time of the crash).
Justice for Victims of Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents in Illinois and Indiana
Substantiation of expectancy violation as a contributing factor in a deadly traffic accident is complicated and will require more work than something with more readily available factual support (e.g., a drunk driving crash with evidence of blood alcohol content). However, it is warranted for consideration in today’s driving surroundings where both internal and external stimuli may create an episode of expectancy violation.
For accident victims and their loved ones involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident or semi-truck crash in Illinois or Indiana, there are state and federal laws that can provide avenues for justice which may provide damages that include medical expenses; lost wages; lost earning capacity; loss of consortium; and more.
For details, read:
- Loss of Earning Capacity Damages After Accident in Illinois or Indiana
- Fatal Accidents and Wrongful Death Lawsuits in Indiana and Illinois
- Damages Available After a Pedestrian Accident in Chicago
- Traffic Fatalities in Chicagoland: High Risk of Deadly Chicago Car Crash.
Drivers on the roads of Illinois and Indiana face unprecedented challenges as they maneuver through crowded roadways, road work zones, high speed limits, and risky weather conditions, all the while dealing with the push of internal vehicle information (like phones, music, alerts, GPS, etc.) and external stimuli.
Sadly, preventable deaths can happen due to the phenomenon of expectancy violation where drivers simply do not see what they do not expect to see. Please be careful out there!
