Daytime Running Lights Reduce Risk of Car Crashes By About Nine Percent

Daytime running lights have been mandatory safety equipment for decades in certain parts of the world, but not in the United States. In Canada and the European Union, DRLs were required long before LEDs became popular, and ushered in the era of DRL designs that automakers use to give their cars a visual identity. Many modern cars, such as the 2023 Toyota Corolla, now come with DRLs down to the lowest trim, but not all cars do. And far from just looking cool, daytime running lights also reduce the risk of car crashes by nearly nine percent, according to a recent study in the Journal of Safety Research.

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There have been other studies on the subject of DRL safety, but this one from the peer-reviewed journal is only the latest. It was conducted by researchers at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, but the findings are no less applicable to other countries, some of which are already privy to the benefits of DRLs.

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Specifically, DRLs “can reduce the overall risk of being involved in a non-nighttime multi-vehicle crash where vehicle visibility may be a factor in crash causation by a statistically significant 8.8 [percent],” per the average results of the study. Visibility is the key word here, since we could argue modern cars are safer than older models, overall.