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Source: Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems announcement
ELYRIA, Ohio – Every year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates crashes involving commercial vehicles and considers how to prevent them, work that helps to shape its biennial “Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements.” Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC, in support of safer roads for everyone, considers the 2021-2022 Most Wanted List a valuable foundation for education and safety enhancement across the commercial vehicle industry.
“While the list addresses all forms of transportation, including passenger vehicles, trains, buses, and planes, it’s important for all of us to pay attention in particular to the section addressing highway safety,” said Fred Andersky, Bendix director of government and industry affairs. “This year’s recommendations in the Highway section of the list include what has been a highly active topic of discussion in trucking for the past few years: requiring collision-avoidance technologies on all vehicles.”
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This is not a new approach for the NTSB, which has been advocating for systems such as forward-looking adaptive cruise control and collision mitigation for more than a quarter century. According to figures published by the board, an estimated 50 percent of all rear-end collisions for both cars and trucks could be prevented if vehicles have forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking systems.
“We need more vehicles equipped with these life-saving technologies, and vehicle and fleet owners should be more informed about their benefits,” writes the NTSB.
Proven on the Road
Forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking (AEB) are just two of the features of the Bendix® Wingman® Fusion™ driver assistance system.
Bendix launched the first generation of Wingman Fusion in 2015, integrating radar, camera, and a vehicle’s brake system to create its flagship driver assistance system. Since then, the company has continually expanded and improved the capabilities of the system through advancements such as providing full braking power on the tractor. Bendix Wingman Fusion with Enhanced Feature Set introduced even more improvements beginning in 2019.
“We’ve long been a proponent that motor carriers – not solely mandates – should be the catalyst to drive safety technology adoption. Fleets utilizing these systems have a firsthand understanding of the difference they are already making on the road,” Andersky said, “so we’re not surprised that the NTSB would like to see regulatory standards established for collision warning and AEB in commercial vehicles, and require the technology in all highway vehicles and all new school buses.”
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Further reinforcing the NTSB’s position is a 2020 study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)/Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) concluding that forward collision warning “was associated with a statistically significant 22% reduction in the rate of police-reportable crashes per vehicle miles traveled, and a significant 44% reduction in the rear-end crash rate of large trucks.”
To view the entire announcement, click HERE.
