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GM's Safety Tech Reduces Crashes by 43%

General Motors vehicles equipped with automatic braking and forward collision warning saw 43% fewer police-reported front-to-rear crashes when compared to similar vehicles that aren't equipped with front crash prevention technology, according to a new IIHS study.

November 14, 2018
GM's Safety Tech Reduces Crashes by 43%

General Motors vehicles with frontal collision reduction technologies are significantly reducing the number of police-reported crashes.

Photo courtesy of IIHS.

2 min to read


General Motors vehicles equipped with automatic braking and forward collision warning saw 43% fewer police-reported front-to-rear crashes when compared to similar vehicles that aren't equipped with front crash prevention technology, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In addition, GM vehicles equipped with those two safety features had 64% fewer front-to-rear crashes with injuries.

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The study also assessed forward collision technology separately. For vehicles equipped with forward collision warning only, the crash rate reductions were 17% for front-to-rear crashes and 30% for front-to-rear crashes with injuries.

Vehicles involved in the research include 2013-15 Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands. GM provided vehicle identification numbers (VINs) for vehicles with and without front crash and other crash avoidance systems. The research team then obtained information on police reported crashes involving those VINs from 23 states including point of impact data, which allowed the team to focus on front-to-rear crashes.

The latest study offers further evidence that front-crash prevention systems are helping drivers avoid crashes, according to the institute. An earlier IIHS study explored safety technologies used in Acura, Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru and Volvo vehicles.

The findings for that study showed that the combination of forward collision warning and autobrake reduced front-to-rear crash rates by 50% for crashes of all severities and 56% for front-to-rear crashes with injuries. Evaluated independently, forward collision warning without autobrake cut the collision rates 27% and 20%, respectively.

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