Freightliner Completes Three-Year Safety Technology Program

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reightliner LLC said late Thursday it completed a three-year field test of electronically controlled braking systems and other safety technologies with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Conducted as part of DOT's initiative to accelerate deployment of new safety technologies that reduce accidents and fatalities, the study’s results will be used to improve truck safety systems’ performance, reliability, durability and maintainability, Freightliner said in a statement.

“With the massive amount of data we collected and provided to DOT, they'll be equipped to draw conclusions about stability and braking systems that may reduce rear-end, lane-change and merge collisions, lane-departure, rollover, and understeer and oversteer instability, ultimately saving lives,” said Scott Smith, executive engineer for Freightliner.

DOT awarded the cooperative research project in 2003 to Freightliner and its team, which included Wal-Mart, Battelle, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Meritor WABCO and the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen (Md.) Test Center.

Freightliner LLC, a unit of DaimlerChrysler, includes the Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star truck brands.