The Covid-19 Pandemic’s Highway Hazard

The Covid-19 pandemic may have triggered an additional danger in an unexpected way. Research by Chicago-based CCC, which provides research and insights for the automotive and insurance industries, reveals vehicle collisions occurred at higher speeds during the early months of the pandemic. At the same time, collisions involving vehicles equipped with automated driver assist systems (ADAS) happened at lower speeds but caused more costly damage to those vehicles.

As the pandemic began to take hold in the U.S. in March, personal travel declined as the public was forced to work and shop from home in many cases, greatly reducing the number of vehicles on the road. Suddenly drivers found themselves with clear sailing on roads that were often clogged pre-pandemic.

What CCC found, through the use of artificial intelligence, vehicle telematics data and other analytics tools, is the average change in velocity during a crash, known as the Delta-V, increased to all-time highs in both front and rear-end collisions. The Delta-V is used to help measure the actual force of a collision. 

“The average increase was roughly about 2 points from an average Delta-V perspective,” said CCC industry analyst Susanna Gotsch in a phone interview. “What we saw was about a 2 point increase in the front, in rear liability we saw about 2 point increase at its highest point. If you go back historically…that’s a lot more variability than we had seen historically going back to September of 2018. That was the largest jump that we had seen. Anytime you’ve got an average increase of more than .5 that’s a significant change.” 

The higher the Delta-V, the higher the chance of significant damage to the vehicle and injuries to the occupants. Indeed, Gotsch says the company found the average Delta-V had increased in the case of what it terms mid to severe accidents that result in more serious damage and injuries—mainly front and rear impact crashes.

While the increase in Delta-V earlier in the pandemic increased, the number of insurance claims during that period actually declined since the sharp drop off in road congestion resulted in fewer accidents. But now that many areas are reopening and traffic is once again building, Gotsch said.

The effect on both Delta-V and insurance claim values is much different for vehicles equipped with ADAS. CCC found the Delta-V during accidents involving vehicles with ADAS technology, most significantly automatic emergency braking (AEB), was much lower as the system, sensing an imminent collision, slowing it before impact. The result is a less serious crash, but only if the striking vehicle is equipped with ADAS. 

“If the car that’s struck has ADAS installed, by a car that doesn’t, it’s not really going to make a difference, is it?” Gotsch said.

She is is quick to point out ADAS may not eliminate collisions, “but if you’re going 40 mph and it senses something in front of you it will apply the brakes, not stopping you before impact, but it will mitigate the speed.” 

Ironically, even a low-speed crash could result in higher insurance claims to cover more expensive repairs for a vehicle with ADAS that’s stuffed with sophisticated, and costly sensors, radar, LiDar and cameras, according to Gotsch. 

Much more on CCC’s research on ADAS and it’s effect on collisions is included in an extensive report prepared by Gotsch titled “Crash Course-It’s Time.”

While discovering the differences in the Delta-V in various scenarios is fascinating in itself, it’s more than a high level science project for CCC. Gaining insight into that parameter provides important knowledge that could help to better summon the most appropriate emergency and medical response after a crash, and uncover questionable claims.

“If the Delta-V is very small and there’s very little intrusion in the car and impact direction and vehicle itself and the type of headrest it has, would it be consistent for someone to say they suffered a torn meniscus in that type of an accident,” said Gotsch.