Traffic Road Safety Risks at Accident Scenes
An accident scene is regarded as one of the most dangerous areas to drive. On the Arrive Alive website we have addressed this topic in much more detail in a section titled “Accident Scene Safety”. It is not only the road surface that might provide hazards such as oil and debris, but there might also be fast moving and inattentive pedestrian activity in the area that needs to be closed down.
The biggest dangers remain the driving behaviour of motorists in the area. Drivers are often distracted by activity at the accident scene and the more brutal the accident, the more likely they are to try and have a closer look. This driver inattentiveness coupled with severe traffic congestion often results in several fender bender accidents between agitated drivers.
But how can we avoid these heavily congested areas?
We need to recognize the importance of technology and potential of GPS capabilities to be able to avoid heavily congested areas.
TomTom, the world’s leading provider of navigation solutions and digital maps now offers the availability of its unique LIVE Services offering, including real-time HD Traffic™ information, in South-Africa.
“We are constantly launching innovating technologies to save the driver’s time, money and fuel.” says Joost Jetten, Vice President Sales Sub Sahara Africa. “Our unique innovations guarantee the fastest routes, so users are empowered to confidently deal with the ever-changing road situation we face in South Africa.”
TomTom has also announced a “manifesto” for reducing traffic internationally! CEO Harold Goddijn announced the move at an event in London, alongside version 4.0 of the HD Traffic – that will also come to head unit TomTom-based devices, too.
Goddijn says that if 10 per cent of the TomTom userbase were to use HD traffic, it “would reduce journey times for everyone – five per cent in Europe. And that’s where we want to go. We are on a mission…we are committed to make this work and do our bit for society and our customers.”
Goddijn says that TomTom really can influence traffic flow in the future “[We’re] trying to understand the problem of traffic…it’s something we can influence. It’s a problem we all know. It’s a global issue. It has a lot of consequences…it costs time, it’s a great stress.
“When we started TomTom we said we needed to understand this issue. It’s now time to start changing conventional wisdom. I don’t think that’s the case…I think we can change traffic and do something about it.”
How HD Traffic works
TomTom HD Traffic uses a revolutionary new source of traffic information: the traffic flow of up to 80 million anonymous mobile phone users on the road, 1 million connected TomTom devices. From this anonymous data, TomTom knows exactly where, in which direction and at what speed all these mobile phone users are traveling throughout the road network. This real-time data is combined with other existing quality traffic information sources, resulting in the most complete and reliable traffic information.
How does HD Traffic benefit the road user?
TomTom uses HD Traffic information to offer you the quickest way to your destination. This dynamic route guidance takes into account constant updates, to allow for any traffic jams that may occur while you are driving.
Conclusion
With technology such as HD Traffic the road user will be able to save time and fuel by avoiding these heavily congested areas at accident scenes –but more importantly – might also avoid unnecessary insurance claims from accidents caused by distracted drivers at accident scenes!!
Also view: GPS Navigation and Road Safety Blog
[ Photos from the accident scene on the N3 – roughly midway between Cato Ridge and Camperdown and what it subsequently did to the traffic at the Cato interchange.]
