Blog

Could Cars of the Future Predict and Prevent Car Accidents Caused by Medical Emergencies?

When most people think of preventable car accidents, they think of people driving while distracted, or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They think of fatal car accidents that were caused by a person running a red light or not heeding a stop sign. The truth is that a much larger number than you may have imagined are actually caused by people experiencing medical emergencies.

Read on to learn more about how many accidents are caused this way and what automakers are doing to change this scenario. If you’ve been injured in a car accident then there may be help out there for you. Was the accident at least partially the fault of someone else? If it was, then let Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas offer you a free legal consultation. We can let you know if you may have grounds for a lawsuit and offer our best advice. Call us at 909-982-0707 to get started.

Diabetics and people with heart disease are in particular danger behind the wheel

A recent gave us some somewhat alarming news. About 20% of accidents that were caused by some sort of driver-reported medical emergency involved diabetic events. About 11% of accidents caused by driver-reported medical emergency involved heat attacks. As you can see, these two conditions made up for a lot of these accidents.

What about medical emergencies that aren’t reported by the driver?

The stats are already alarming but when you consider that it only involves drivers who reported their conditions, it can be even more alarming. Why? Because imagine how many people had heart attacks behind the wheel and didn’t live to explain the reason for their accident? The same is true for diabetic episodes – if a person doesn’t survive the episode and the crash, then their results wouldn’t be included in this survey.

Automakers are aware of this issue and are working on technology to help

Automakers report that they’re currently working on innovations that could help combat this issue. There are already some innovations in place, which give drivers an easy way to report their medical emergency and get help sent to their location. However, this may not go far enough. After all, what happens if the attack hits suddenly and the driver can’t call for help? One potential solution automakers are working on is technology within a vehicle that can actually monitor the driver’s medical conditions.

The way it works is simple. The auto would monitor certain medical conditions and if there was a change, then it would pull the car off the road and automatically call emergency personnel. For example, it would monitor the heart rate and if it plummeted, it could pull the car over.

Certainly, there are some privacy issues to be sorted out here. Ideally, the driver would be able to opt out of this monitoring each time they get into the car. That said, it could be a technology that saves thousands of lives every year – and that’s a good thing. At Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas, we’re excited to keep an eye on this and see how it works out.