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Letters were sent to drivers warning them about high potential for crashes, but that didn’t stop the wrecks from happening.
WASHINGTON — A recent study conducted in the District found researchers can accurately predict the types of drivers most likely to be involved in a crash but can’t stop those wrecks from happening.
The Lab @ DC, a research and design team that works with several government agencies in the city, looked at several factors to determine which drivers were most likely to get into a crash. Those factors included the number of citations, the type, and if the driver was ticketed on a weekday. Those drivers were then sent letters in the mail, texted, or received both notifications, warning them they were at higher risk.
“We were able to identify more than a thousand vehicles that would get in a crash within the next 12 months,” said Sam Quinney, with The Lab.
Quinney worked on the study and says the goal is to eventually prevent all crashes from happening.
“Even if we were only able to prevent a handful of crashes that would be a huge return on our investment,” said Quinney.
The team sent out notifications to roughly 45,000 drivers across the area.
Quinney says, despite the warnings, the messages did not have much impact.
“What we learned, unfortunately, was that these messages didn’t seem to have an effect one way or another on people getting into crashes,” said Quinney.
Although they couldn’t prevent the wrecks, The Lab correctly identified many of the at risk drivers, which is information Quinney says can help them learn for the future.
“One message wasn’t enough to move those behaviors but there may be other messages or other volumes of messages that may,” said Quinney.
Quinney says the team will continue to work on ways to reduce crashes across the area.
For more information on the study, click here.
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