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“Now, with our new study, we have confirmation that these improvements are saving lives.” “Our awards have been a huge motivator for automakers to improve their headlights,” Brumbelow says. It has made high-quality headlights a requirement for its Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards, giving manufacturers an incentive to make better headlights available on more vehicles. IIHS has campaigned for better headlights since 2016, when it launched its headlight rating program. The study results are a reminder of the importance of making certain headlight systems are working as they were designed to when a repaired vehicle is returned to its owner. “This is the first study to document how much headlights that provide better illumination can help.” “Driving at night is three times as risky as driving during the day,” IIHS Senior Research Engineer Matthew Brumbelow, who conducted the study, said in a news release.
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Moreover, even vehicles with acceptable or marginal headlights have crash rates 15 percent and 10 percent lower, respectively, than those with poor headlights, IIHS found.Ĭompared with poor headlights, good-rated headlights reduced the rate of crashes in which the driver was hurt by 29 percent, and the rates of tow-away crashes and pedestrian crashes by about a quarter each. Vehicles that have earned a coveted “good” rating in the IIHS evaluation have nighttime crash rates that are 20 percent lower than those with poor-rated headlights, according to the institute.
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Real-world crash results are proving the value of the headlight ratings program developed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the institute said.
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