About Refai

As the weather warms and summer beckons, students are planning road trips near and far. Fun and adventurous, sure. But with automobile travel come some significant safety challenges.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that nearly half of all traffic accidents occur in intersections. These accidents cause almost 10,000 deaths and 1.5 million injuries every year.

How can intersection accidents be prevented? One method, says Hazem Refai, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Oklahoma, is to embed sensors around intersections that would alert drivers of potential dangers in time to avoid them. These sensors could also interact with traffic lights, causing the light to change from green to red to avoid a potential accident.

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