According to a new study, signs that remind drivers of highway mortality can backfire.
Drivers in Texas are 4.5 percent more likely to get in a crash in the next 10 kilometers.
In Texas alone, that accident rate could account for 2,600 crashes a year and 16 deaths. 17,000 car crashes are caused in the US every year if the same rate exists nationwide.
Our study shows that in-your-face safety messages crowd out more pressing safety concerns.
There is a chance that traffic signs are more of a disaster than a deterrent.
28 states have adopted similar interventions.
Texas makes for a good case study because the state flashes fatal accidents on the highway once a week. Researchers were able to measure the impact of these messages on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.
Jonathan Hall.
Researchers were surprised to find an immediate negative impact after comparing car crashes from before and after the safety campaign started. The campaign was doing things that were not intended to be done.
Car crashes went up when fatality signs went up. Raising the speed limit by 3 to 5 miles per hour is comparable to reducing highway troopers by up to 14 percent.
The authors of the study found a way to explain the results.
They think that road fatalities are too similar to sobering messages. Instead of making a driver more alert, they make them more distracted.
Road signs can cause drivers to overlook other important considerations, like knowing where other cars are around them, if they steal some of a driver's attention and turn it into anxiety about death.
There was an increase in car crashes from fatality signs on Texas roads that were more complex, such as those with more traffic or more lanes.
Another key explanation is anxiety. As the number of car crash deaths increased, so did the chances of a car crash happening in the following 10 kilometers.
The more shocking the sign, the more likely someone will pay attention to the risk. The rate of car crashes can be reduced by up to 11 percent when the annual fatality numbers restart in February.
High anxiety levels can impact our performance on a task, driving us to overthink, which can affect our reflexes. When first adopting road safety campaigns, the downside was forgotten.
Studies in the lab have shown that fatality messages can mess with a driver's cognitive load, but research in the real world is limited. Billboards are a distraction to drivers, according to vehicle simulations.
The authors of the Texas study warn that good intentions do not mean good outcomes.
The US Federal Highway Administration began discouraging the use of fatality numbers on the road in 2021.
The findings in Texas support the decision.
The crash data presented clearly demonstrates a safety effect of showing fatality numbers on signs.
The mechanism for the safety effect is not clearly understood by the data presented in the paper. There are additional analyses regarding crash types and documented factors in the crash reports.
The research shows that a public health policy needs to be tested before it's implemented.
Science published the study.
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