Do Not Trust Technology Alone to Protect You From North Carolina Car Accidents

August 9, 2012, by Michael A. DeMayo

Whether you’ve just been in a car accident in North Carolina – or you’re obsessed with how to protect yourself and your family from future crashes – you likely spend a fair amount of time researching and comparing automotive technologies. If safety is a concern, you want a car with a great grading – ideally a vehicle with airbags, ABS, great lines of sight, great crash test records, etc. You may even scour tech blogs or read Wired magazine for insights into the latest and greatest automotive safety technologies.

There is certainly a place for powerful new technology in Charlotte auto accident prevention.

But relying too much on technology to save us/protect us can be a profound mistake.

It’s a mistake not just because of our fears that the technology might go wrong – like something out of “2010 Space Odyssey”. Defective automotive components or technologies can and do cause crashes, and the team here at the Law Offices of Michael DeMayo can help.

But great technology presents a subtler and perhaps even more important danger.

The danger is that “great safety tech” indirectly encourages us to let up on our focus.

When we believe that automatic brakes will save us when we drive in the rain, we tend to be a little less careful during a thunderstorm. Maybe we only “let up” on our driving vigilance by 5% or something. But when you extrapolate that diminution in vigilance over tens of years and thousands of hours behind the wheel, it can really add up. The odds of your getting into a crash on any given day due to your overreliance on technology are minimal: difficult to measure, in fact.

But your attitudinal change – your overreliance on technology – likely has a substantial negative effect over the longer-term. So if you are looking to make progress in terms of auto safety – in terms of eliminating your risks and maximizing your opportunities for safety – you need to avoid this natural tendency towards increased complacency.

What if the “other guy” was distracted or made lazy by his technology?

What if the person who hit you did so because he or she had been overly reliant on automotive safety technology… and as result he drove in a negligent or careless fashion?

The answer is complicated and situation-dependent.

Fortunately, you do not have to get into the nitty-gritty of investigating your accident by yourself. The experienced Charlotte auto accident team at DeMayo Law would be more than happy to talk to you about your case and provide a free and confidential consultation.