Merrill Allen

Merrill J. Allen, O.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Optometry of Indiana University, School of Optometry, Bloomington, Indiana, has been involved in vision research and teaching since 1941. He has over 200 publications and has received 19 awards including the Research Medal Award from the British Optical Association (1970) and the Apollo Award from the American Optometric Association (1971). He has served as an expert witness in over 600 law suits, providing opinions on the role of visual factors and alcohol in the cause of motor vehicle accidents. He has studied thousands of accident reports, done accident reconstruction and studied other data in order to render his opinions. Dr. Allen has carried out government, industry and optometrically funded research projects and he considers that consulting on motor vehicle accidents is attorney subsidized research. Many of his research publications are directed at improving motor vehicle safety by eliminating the design errors that keep showing up accidents. High mounted brake lights were a direct result of a research study he did on the Indianapolis Speedway. Daytime running lights resulted from his research funded by the Indianapolis Star newspaper. A RR crossing accident in Kalamazoo Michigan in which he testified resulted in increasing the brightness of railroad signal lights across America. He believes that simple changes of the visual features of motor vehicles and the driving environment can reduce our accidents 80% or more and save over 30,000 lives per year!