A lot of car accidents in St. Louis, Missouri, occur when a driver is rushing to get somewhere, speeding down the road. When their focus is on something other than driving, they make negligent mistakes such as running a red light, failing to look both ways when making a turn or not noticing a vehicle in the lane next to them.

David Noyce, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says he has the answer. He claims that roundabouts not only decrease the number of fatal car accidents. Anyone who has lost a loved one would be on board for anything that would prevent the loss of more life, but are roundabouts the answer?

Noyce claims that a recent research study he conducted shows that roundabouts are not only safer than the traditional cross intersection, but they are also more efficient by keeping traffic moving. The findings were released at the most recent annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington D.C.

Finding a traffic engineering system with both efficiency and safety is a rare occurrence, said Noyce. "Our research has shown roundabouts offer benefit in both of these," he said to the over 11,000 transportation professionals at the annual meeting.

Opponents of the traffic system which is being installed in cities across the nation say Americans are unfamiliar with the process. The confusion causes them to stop when they shouldn't, merge without adequate space and even enter the roundabout in the wrong direction.

As safe as cars and traffic systems become, they cannot stop the actions of a negligent driver from hurting others on the road. When negligence ends in the loss of a life, the law provides a route for the families of victims through a wrongful death lawsuit.

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison, "Roundabouts emerging as the ideal intersection between driver safety and efficiency," Renee Meiller, Feb. 1, 2012