ROAD INJURIES and IoT TECHNOLOGY

The number of total road accidents is shocking. The World Health Organization has included road injuries as one of the top 10 causes of death in the world.

1.24 million road traffic deaths occur every year and 50% of all road traffic deaths are among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

In 2014, 21,287 cyclists were injured in reported road accidents, including 3,514 who were killed or seriously injured.

However, compared to car deaths and accidents, cycling is much safer. Icebike.org is a website providing interesting info on the bike world and, in particular, a real-time traffic accident statistics, also on a country-related basis. Figures indicate both the number of people killed and injured in traffic accidents and the total cost in terms of economic losses to victims and their families, but also to the whole nation since governments bear costs of treatment (including rehabilitation and incident investigation) as well as reduced/lost productivity (e.g. in wages or in time that family members need to care for the injured).

In the transport industry, a lot of companies are investing in the development of IoT solutions that can help vehicle users to reduce accident risks. Usually, they integrate a collision detection or a crash reporter, that are applications used to monitor, detect and reduce the severity of a collision, thus increasing the vehicle safety.

ESB electronics embeds also a crash sensor which detects vehicle’s motion, changes in forces and impacts and sends messages to minimize the emergency response time.