Most of rely on the three traffic signal colors to drive safely on the road. Just following these signals may seem like enough to avoid mishaps on the road. However, accidents do happen, and many of them happen close to traffic signal points on highways and city roads. Who is to be blame? Is the situation really the same as what you may have imagined? For that, traffic signal accident investigation is necessary. There are companies that often work with authorities, investigators, insurers, and victims, to figure out what actually caused a traffic signal accident. In this post, we are discussing more on how such investigation is done and why that matters.
Understanding the math behind traffic signals
You probably know that programming is done to manage traffic signal, and underlying technologies are involved in ensuring that the colors – red, yellow and green – flash as required. Coding practices, electronic equipment, and other factors influence what we see at traffic signals, and in many cases, accidents may happen because of no fault of the driver.
Why get traffic signal accidents investigated?
Witness testimonies are, of course, important when it comes to investigating incidents at traffic signals, but there are other aspects to note. In most cases, the information that’s seen on CCTV camera footage is not enough. If you have been accused in a case where you believe that you were not at fault, getting the accident investigated by a professional company might be the best step. Even authorities and insurance companies hire services for getting such incidents checked, because such accidents are not just about finding who made a mistake, or if there are other factors that caused the accident.
How is the investigation done?
Companies that deal in such accident investigations rely on a team of traffic signal experts and engineers, who have worked on a bunch of related projects. They will not merely check the fault of drivers, but also if the accident was a result of fault with traffic signal equipment, or whether installation, maintenance of such equipment had a role to play in the mishap. A considerable number of traffic signal accidents happen when the light is yellow, and this may be related to how a pedestrian behaved on the way, or whether the signal was faulty and didn’t work as expected.
The investigation of traffic signal accidents is always a complicated one, and experts who take up the work often have worked in the field of installing & maintenance of traffic signal equipment.