Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Attorney Blog
Florida is one of eight states being used in a pilot program to map the safest roadways according to a recent article in USA Today.
If all goes as planned, Florida motorists will be able to log onto a website to determine the safest roads to travel in order to avoid car accidents in West Palm Beach and elsewhere in the state.
Our Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorneys know that a program like this could make road trip planning a much safer and more enjoyable way to travel across Florida and the U.S.
Internet savvy road trip planners can add one more thing to their checklist: figuring out which route will be the safest to travel based on roads that have the highest reported traffic deaths and injuries. AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is in the development stages of designing such a program for in-vehicle navigation systems. The idea is to be able to shop for “Five-Star Safety” routes as you would when purchasing an automobile.
The idea came from a public interest survey taken in 2009. The foundation survey found that 2,141 drivers, or 73% of motorists surveyed, would use a feature that would determine the safest roadways if offered, especially when traveling on unfamiliar roadways.
SafeRoadMaps.org, founded in 2008 has received several hits from viewers trying to plot the safest roadways. The interactive site from University of Minnesota’s Center for Excellence in Rural Safety allows drivers to mark fatal crashes on a map online for roadways all over the country.
Other states involved in the pilot program are New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, and Utah — the foundation hopes to add more states throughout 2011. The hope is that the data on fatalities and safety features for this site will be used by local and state officials as well, when promoting the safety of their roadways.
Florida motorists currently have the luxury of finding the shortest route on map websites but if given the opportunity to find the safest route would that change their planning on a road trip? Most drivers would agree that it’s better to get to your planned destination safely than to plan to get their quicker and not make it at all.
If you have been injured in a car accident in West Palm Beach, Miami, Margate, Port St. Lucie or Fort Lauderdale, contact the experienced attorneys at Freeman, Mallard, Sharp & Gonzalez for legal advice. For a free consultation to discuss your rights, call 1-800-529-2368 to speak with an attorney today.