IIHS Tells NHTSA That It's Regulations Are Making Visibility Worse

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has realized that modern vehicles have proportions that drastically limit visibility and is introducing new methods of testing blind spots. However, it is likewise pressuring the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to ramp up efforts to reduce the rising number of on-road fatalities — completely ignoring that government regulations are one of the biggest influences determining how modern vehicles are designed.

 

Visibility has become a major issue for modern drivers and the IIHS has grown increasingly aware of the problem in recent years. Headlights (particularly those equipped to trucks and SUVs) are blinding oncoming traffic and changes in vehicle designs have exacerbated blind spots. While the IIHS has already been working on better ways of assessing headlight performance, determining outward visibility has become its latest endeavor.