Talking cars — what does yours say in a crash?
Vehicle data offers the next frontier to mitigate accident injuries and improve casualty claim responses.
For automakers, there are three technology strategies to reduce serious injury and related consequences from auto accidents:
- Prevent auto accidents.
- Protect occupants from injury when in an auto accident.
- Facilitate better medical care to an injured occupant after an accident.
Today, vehicle manufacturers offer a variety of technologies within each of these categories. For example, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) such as forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and blind-spot detection are designed to prevent accidents. Occupant protection systems, such as airbags, seat belts and collapsible steering columns, are designed to prevent injury when an accident occurs. Lastly, today’s telematics systems connect the car to service providers who can use vehicle data to improve emergency medical response to an accident.
Virtually all these technologies benefit from robust vehicle data capture and artificial intelligence. Interestingly, data captured for accident prevention and occupant protection technologies can be used to improve medical care to injured parties after an accident. We will explore the use of this data and how it can also benefit casualty claim processes.
Telematics systems and vehicle data
Vehicle data is important for understanding injury outcomes. The professional disciplines of accident reconstruction and injury causation have established axioms. All other factors being equal, the following are true:
- Increasing the severity of an impact, in terms of impact acceleration, increases the amount of damage to a vehicle.
- Increasing the severity of an impact, also in terms of impact acceleration, increases the risk of injury to the vehicle’s occupants.
If we can measure acceleration in a collision, we can gain better insights into auto damage and the potential for occupant injury.
For example, a high-speed frontal collision that causes the accident vehicle to quickly come to a complete stop would be classified as a high-severity (and high-acceleration) frontal impact, likely causing significant auto damage and serious injuries to occupants.
Conversely, a low-speed frontal collision involving a vehicle of the same weight that causes the accident vehicle to completely stop over the same timeframe would be described as a low-severity (and low-acceleration) frontal impact, causing less auto damage and serious injury to occupants.
Several auto manufacturers offer what is commonly referred to as Advanced Automated Collision Notification Systems (AACN) in the U.S. These systems use data from on-board sensors that measure collision accelerations to detect accidents and other on-board data elements, which are transmitted via telematics, and AI is used to predict the severity of injury outcomes in near real-time.
Over a decade ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published forward-looking recommendations from an expert panel on AACN and the triage of the injured patient. The panel found that AACN systems showed promise in improving outcomes in severely injured crash patients. Using AACN, severe, life-threatening injuries can be predicted almost immediately from vehicle data using telematics and AI. Armed with these injury predictions, first responders with the appropriate level of training can be deployed to the accident scene, which is also provided by the vehicle.
Additionally, when severe injuries are predicted and are not easily observable by first responders (e.g., internal injuries), injured occupants should be directed to Level 1 trauma centers rather than local hospital emergency rooms. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that if someone is severely injured in an accident and transported to a Level 1 trauma center, their chances for survival increase by 25%.
The experts also identified a variety of vehicle-based data points helpful in predicting serious injury. Two data elements are not surprising: 1) acceleration and 2) seat belt use.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires all passenger vehicles, pick-up trucks and other lightweight vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2013, to capture and record the following information:
- Longitudinal acceleration data during a collision event that exceeds a 5 mph speed change in about 1/7th of a second.
- Driver seat belt usage immediately preceding the collision.
Under certain circumstances, NHTSA requires the capture of lateral acceleration data during a collision event and front-seat passenger seat belt usage immediately preceding the collision.
The major takeaways here are: 1) auto manufacturers already have sensors and other technologies in place that capture the important data elements identified by the CDC panel to predict injury outcomes, and; 2) as vehicle safety technologies become more advanced, these data elements will be utilized and likely more accessible from the vehicle through telematics.
What are the implications to auto casualty claims?
If real-time vehicle crash data is predictive of injury outcomes for early responders to accident scenes, it should also be predictive of the nature and extent of ensuing casualty claims.
For insurers, understanding the expected injuries immediately after an accident can help answer important questions such as:
- What are the likely diagnoses and treatments?
- Will the injury claim costs likely exceed policy limits?
- Are there any injury claims that are inconsistent with the vehicle data?
- Is the developing treatment path consistent with the expected injury?
Armed with these insights, insurers can accurately segment claims based on their complexity and straight-through process claims that experience shows will not benefit from increased human touches. The result? Significant time savings, elimination of related process expense and improved customer service.
With the earlier stated benefits of improving accident scene responses and saving lives, valuable vehicle data such as acceleration and seat belt use promise to drive significant changes in the accident response and casualty claims landscape.
Scott Palmer is vice president and research fellow for CCC Information Services Inc. To learn more about CCC Casualty Solutions, visit the CCC website.
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