Study: Electronic devices might stop 40% of huge truck rear crashes – Seattle PI

crashes Back to Gallery DETROIT (AP)– Security features such as automated emergency braking and forward collision cautions might avoid more than 40% of crashes in which semis rear-end other cars, a new study has actually discovered.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research study group supported by auto insurance providers, likewise discovered that when the rear crashes took place, the systems cut the speeds by over 50%, minimizing damage and injuries.

The institute gotten in touch with the federal government to require the systems on brand-new large trucks and stated numerous truck fleet operators are already adding emergency situation braking by themselves.

“Rear-end crashes with trucks and other automobiles happen a lot, typically with awful effects,” said Eric Teoh, the institute’s director of statistical services who did the research study. “This is a crucial countermeasure to that.”

Trucks with collision caution systems minimized rear crashes by 44%, while automatic emergency situation braking cut rear crashes by 41%, the research study found.

To reach his conclusions, Teoh took a look at crash data per automobile mile traveled at 62 trucking companies that use tractor-trailers or other trucks weighing a minimum of 33,000 pounds (15,000 kgs). The research study discovered about 2,000 crashes that occurred over more than 2 billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) traveled from 2017 through 2019.

The research study compared trucks from the very same companies that were geared up with accident caution alone, automated emergency braking, and no crash prevention functions at all, the IIHS stated.

The IIHS likewise found that trucks geared up with a crash warning system had 22% fewer crashes than those without either innovation. For automatic emergency braking, the figure was 12%.

“This is important details for trucking business and chauffeurs who are weighing the costs and advantages of these options on their next automobiles,” Teoh said.

The institute states U.S. crashes including large trucks increased by nearly one-third given that striking a record low in 2009. A total of 4,136 people passed away in such crashes in 2018, with 119 of the deaths in rear-end crashes.

2 federal agencies that control heavy trucks, the Federal Motor Carrier Security Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said they will evaluate the IIHS report. NHTSA said in a statement that it is almost finished with a study examining the safety benefits of chauffeur help technology on heavy lorries, while the motor carrier administration has been motivating voluntary usage of systems such as automated emergency situation braking.

In October of 2015, NHTSA began the regulatory procedure to evaluate forward collision warning and automated braking for heavy trucks.

The American Trucking Associations, a market group that represents many large providers, said it supports policies requiring automatic emergency situation braking on all brand-new vehicles, both guest and business, after the innovation is used gradually by fleets and drivers.

Yet the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association said it can’t accept the research study’s conclusions since it did not include real-world elements such as chauffeur training and experience or a provider’s safety record.

AAA and other groups that have actually studied automatic emergency situation braking and other driver help features have discovered that they don’t work properly all of the time. But Teoh said his study still discovered that they avoid or reduce the intensity of crashes, and their efficiency is improving.

The systems utilize cams, radar or other sensors to inspect the road. Some simply warn the motorist of risks, while more advanced emergency braking systems will actually brake the truck.

In the U.S., there are no requirements for either system, however automated emergency situation braking with forward collision warning has been required by the European Union on all brand-new big trucks given that late 2013, the institute stated.

The systems might avoid horrific crashes that take place when trucks do not pick up slower or stopped traffic in highway construction zones, Teoh stated.

A crash with those scenarios occurred in July 2019 in Indianapolis, eliminating a female and her 18-month-old twin children. Prosecutors alleged that a semi motorist was traveling 65 miles per hour (105 kilometers per hour) when his rig struck a line of traffic in a construction zone. Authorities charged the driver with negligent murder and said he didn’t start braking until the rig knocked into the very first of numerous lorries. 5 other automobiles were struck and seven more individuals were hurt.