WEST HARTFORD — Changing how you park your car in a lot can reduce your chance of crashing into another car or person, according to AAA.
Most people pull forward into a parking space, and back up into traffic when ready to leave. According to AAA, every year 300 people are killed and around 18,000 people are injured from cars that are backing up. Most of those incidents occur in parking lots.
And if money is what motivates you, consider this: the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says nearly 15 percent of insurance claims related to accidents come from incidents that occur in parking lots.
Instead, AAA recommends drivers back into parking spaces and so that they can pull out into traffic going forward.
“According to driver training experts, the safest way to park a vehicle is by backing into the space, and then later pulling forward,” says AAA Driving School Director Jennifer Shorette. “This technique maximizes driver visibility and minimizes chances of striking a pedestrian or other vehicle.”
While some may not want to change habit, and insist that new technologies in cars, such as back-up cameras and rear traffic alert systems–or sensors that detect objects that are in your path–that isn’t completely true. Some of those alert systems can’t detect pedestrians, and others miss objects as much as 60 percent of the time.
“Recognizing that American parking habits differ from much of the world, automakers are increasingly adding technology designed to address rear visibility concerns,” Parmenter says. “However, AAA’s testing of these systems reveals significant shortcomings.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will require all new vehicles to have rear visibility technology by May of 2018.
