Truck Safety Technologies Save Lives

Truck safety technology is changing road safety. Although it does involve some investment upfront, the money saved from avoiding deadly truck accidents more than pays for the technology. When carriers install truck safety technology, they are taking steps that could save lives.

What is Truck Safety Technology?

Known as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), this technology assists drivers in safer driving. These systems include a wide range of technologies designed to avoid hazards and identify possible risks. In some cases, the system will gain momentary control to avoid issues with slow reaction times. However, for the most part, the driver maintains control and benefits by warning systems that keep them focused on potential dangers. This truck safety technology mitigates the risk for accidents, and in turn, reduces the risk for injury and death.

What Does Truck Safety Technology Include?

The most common features of ADAS include:

• Adaptive cruise control
• AEB: Autonomous emergency braking
• Driver alerts such as blind-spot warnings
• CWS: Collision warning systems
• Parking aids
• ESC: Electronic stability control
• Lane assistance
• Front side-view cameras
• Night vision

It was estimated that features such as lane departure warnings systems that help vehicles avoid collisions could reduce accidents by 25%.

Over 63,000 Truck Related Accidents Annually

Truck safety technology has the potential to prevent as many as 63,000 crashes annually according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The study found there were over 400,000 crashes involving large trucks in 2015, leading to 116,000 injuries and over 4,000 deaths. However, if carriers invested in cost-effective truck safety technologies these numbers could drop considerably.

Truck Safety Technology Improvements

The foundation feels their study demonstrates how technology can reduce deaths and injuries. They believe the cost to install the systems is far less than the cost of lost lives and injuries. In fact, according to the study named “Leveraging Large Truck Technology and Engineering to Realize Safety Gains”, introducing four advanced safety technologies would lead to the following outcomes annually:

1. Lane departure warning systems: Cameras, sensors, and other safety technologies detect drifting and send an alert to avoid lane departures. This can prevent as many as 6,372 crashes, 1,342 injuries, and 115 deaths.
2. Video-based onboard safety monitoring systems: The prevention of up to 63,000 crashes, 17,733 injuries, and 293 deaths.
3. Automatic emergency braking: Using cameras and sensors to detect potential collisions, first a warning system sends an alert, then an override helps stop the vehicle if the driver does not respond. This can prevent as many as 5,294 crashes, 2,753 injuries, and 55 deaths.
4. Air disc brakes: This upgrade can make significant improvements to a truck’s ability to stop. They can prevent as many as 2,411 crashes, 1,447 injuries, and 37 deaths.

While it might seem the installation of truck safety technology is too costly, on average it costs between $2500 to $4000 per truck. When carriers consider the costs of an accident, potential lawsuits, not to mention rising insurance, truck safety technology is well worth the investment.