Highway safety topics

For decades, IIHS has been a leader in the science of road safety. Our research helps policymakers, safety professionals, vehicle manufacturers and the wider public understand what works and what doesn’t to prevent crashes from happening and to minimize injuries in the crashes that still occur. Explore our research on key highway safety issues below.

Advanced driver assistance

Front crash prevention, partial automation, limitations of crash prevention technologies

Airbags

Front and side airbags, lives saved by airbags, airbag injuries, airbag innovations

Alcohol and drugs

Alcohol and crash risk, laws, marijuana enforcement

Auto insurance

Auto insurance basics, insurance loss trends, using loss data in safety research

Child safety

Child restraints, booster seats, backover and frontover crashes

Distracted driving

Cellphone use and crash risk, device laws, technologies to combat distraction

Headlights

Visibility and glare, LED headlamps, high-beam assist, adaptive high beams

Large trucks

Trucking regulations, fatigue, braking systems, underride

Motorcycles

Helmet laws, antilock braking systems, motorcycle types

Older drivers

Age and driving ability, age and injury risk, license renewal laws, vehicle technology

Pedestrians and bicyclists

Vehicle designs, intersections, crash avoidance technologies, daylight savings time

Red light running

Effectiveness of cameras, signal timing, communities using red light safety cameras

Roundabouts

Roundabouts and safety, traffic flow, public opinion, effect on older drivers

Seat belts

Why belts matter, state laws, reminders and interlocks

Speed

Dangers of speed, by the numbers, traffic calming, intelligent speed assistance

Teenagers

Teen crash risk, graduated driver licensing, vehicle choice, teens and alcohol

Vehicle size and weight

Size and crash protection, vehicle compatibility, fuel economy rules and safety

Comprehensive research bibliography

IIHS has been conducting research for more than 50 years. See a list of papers organized by subject. In many cases, full papers are available for download. Papers published in copyrighted publications are available upon request.

Access our comprehensive bibliography

Fatality statistics

IIHS publishes annual statistical summaries of the motor vehicle safety picture. These are updated once a year, when the U.S. Department of Transportation releases new data.

Access our fatality statistics

State law information

To help inform our research, we closely monitor changes to state laws that affect road safety. Summaries are presented here for general information purposes.

Access our state law information