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From: rm@faust.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <40000003@faust.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Jan-86 19:27:00 EST
Article-I.D.: faust.40000003
Posted: Sun Jan 19 19:27:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jan-86 08:16:37 EST
References: <172@hropus.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:hropus:-17200:faust:40000003:000:2128
Nf-From: faust!rm    Jan 19 19:27:00 1986


** Retrace this line with your passage **

> > > If you've been at all observant, you may have noticed that 86 cars have
> > > a third brake light, per BIG BROTHER.  Supposedly they significantly
> > > reduce rear-enders, and seem like a very good idea....	
 
> > Why do we need another light?  Who came up with this one?  Seeing some
> > of the third brake lights it reminds me of a police car.  Maybe this is
> > the reason for reducing rear-enders.

> The Big Brother is the NHTSA, and the studies have shown a 50% reduction in
> rear-end accidents when there is a brake light visible at viewing level. It
> isn't because it looks like a police car, but simply because you see if it you
> are looking beyond the car in front of you -- the lower brake lights can get
> missed if you aren't paying attention to them.

The truth is that no one really knows the reason the third light
reduced rear-end accidents in the NHTSA study.  Oh yes, there is
much speculation, but the original studies did not claim to know
why the addition of the light reduced rear-end accidents- only
that it did.  As Seargent Friday used to say, "The facts, ma'm,
just the facts."

However I'n personally not above advancing an opinion on the subject.
I think they helped for one of two reasons:

1. Just because they're different, and the average asleep-at-the-wheel
American driver takes notice of something different.

2. As already pointed out, beacuse it makes the car look like a cop car,
and people tend to be real careful about rear-ending cops.  I further
speculate that the easiest way to do a statistically significant study
of this would be to find one or more large fleets to use for the
study.  And since most fleet vehicles (taxis, post office, gas company)
have both text and distinguishing markings on them, they would look
even more like cop cars at a distance.

I would be very interested in the results of the follow up study
(although I doubt there will be one) when these lights become
commonplace.

R.M. Mottola
Intermetrics Inc.
Cambridge, MA.

The opinions expressed in this response couldn't possibly belong
to anyone else.