Over the past two years I have noticed that there seemed to be a lot of vehicles running into homes, apartments, and businesses. It was as if the newest form of accident was the assault on buildings. But, perhaps it was a local phenomena, so I began looking around for information. This really began when the local news was reporting at least one of these accidents each week. Perhaps it was just here that this was occurring, but no, it is everywhere. But I soon discovered that although it is happening across the country, there was very little good data to support any acceptable hypothesis. So, despite the fact that I don't like to use anecdotal information, it is the best that I can do at the moment.
After doing a search, I found that most reports were coming from local news organizations from across the country. They tended to be tailored to local interest and there were few, if any explanations. There were the usual suspects; elderly drivers, intoxicated operators, and distracted drivers. There was one explanation that was simply that the brake and accelerator were closer together and smaller and that resulted in "accidental acceleration". So, I searched for hard data and have so far found only a small pool of information.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has information on fatalities caused by running into buildings, but no other hard data. The most recent from 2009 reported 53 fatal accidents involving buildings. Even the US DOT,(Department of Transportation) through NHTSA, (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), does not record this type of accident. However, they did have an interesting survey on distracted drivers here. This, coupled with excessive speed, seems to be the most reasonable explanation for the increase in these types of accidents.
If any readers have similar observations or can either broaden or narrow the reasons, please comment. I certainly could have missed something important. Until then, please use the door...
After doing a search, I found that most reports were coming from local news organizations from across the country. They tended to be tailored to local interest and there were few, if any explanations. There were the usual suspects; elderly drivers, intoxicated operators, and distracted drivers. There was one explanation that was simply that the brake and accelerator were closer together and smaller and that resulted in "accidental acceleration". So, I searched for hard data and have so far found only a small pool of information.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has information on fatalities caused by running into buildings, but no other hard data. The most recent from 2009 reported 53 fatal accidents involving buildings. Even the US DOT,(Department of Transportation) through NHTSA, (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), does not record this type of accident. However, they did have an interesting survey on distracted drivers here. This, coupled with excessive speed, seems to be the most reasonable explanation for the increase in these types of accidents.
If any readers have similar observations or can either broaden or narrow the reasons, please comment. I certainly could have missed something important. Until then, please use the door...
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