It has been reported that 4000 deaths and over 116000 accidents have taken place last year as a result of 400000 crashes that took place. This is increased by almost 4% from the previous year. A study shows that advanced truck safety technology has the potential to reduce these car crashes by up to 63000 per year. A survey conducted on how safe people feel while driving along with large trucks, 61% say they do not feel safe at all. Most people insisted that adding truck safety technology will help them feel safer.
A new study on “Leveraging Large Truck Technology and Engineering to Realize Safety Gains” was conducted to understand the benefits and cost of installing four key advanced safety technologies on both new and existing trucks. AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a nonprofit research, and education organization recently released a report on that survey. The report states that truck safety technologies save lives and the benefits of installing it outweighs the cost.
- Lane departure warning systems detect when the vehicle drifts out of its lane and warns the driver. In the research, it has also been found that lane departure warning system can prevent 6372 crashes, 2753 injuries, and 115 deaths every year.
- Automatic emergency braking systems, brakes automatically when needed when it detects when the truck is in danger of striking the vehicle in front of it. Reports suggest that it could prevent up to 5,294 crashes, 2,753 injuries and 55 deaths each year while air disc brakes could prevent up to 2,411 crashes, 1,447 injuries, and 37 fatalities.
- Superior maintenance and performance providing Air disc brakes are advantageous relative to traditional drum brakes.
- Onboard safety monitoring systems that are video-based should be installed, which use cameras in vehicles and other sensors to monitor the driver’s behavior and performance. Video-based onboard safety monitoring systems could prevent as many as 63,000 crashes, 17,733 injuries and 293 deaths annually.
The size and length of the truck are huge and it makes 28% people included in the survey feel less safe as compared to the passenger car. These trucks tend to move out of the lane and the blind spot and visibility issue created by them is also a major concern. “Adding these safety technologies to the trucking fleet is not only cost-effective but doing so helps to alleviate driver concerns and prevents crashes,” says Jake Nelson, AAA director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research.
The following recommendation is for people to follow for safe driving:
- We should be aware that trucks have large blind spots or “no-zones. Follow trucks at a safe distance.
- Leave plenty of room for your vehicle and the truck when coming to a stop on a hill.
- Avoid speeding up when a truck is passing. Slow down and give the truck driver plenty of room to pass.
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