Editorial: Improving Highway Safety

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img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>About 1.2 million people around the world will die in traffic-related accidents this year according to the World Health Organization, a staggering total.

Based on recent history, in the United States the death toll can be expected to be around 43,000, with about 11% of those fatalities coming from truck-related accidents.

So it is heartening to see that the world’s two largest makers of commercial vehicles, DaimlerChrysler and AB Volvo, have decided to make safety a hallmark of their marketing campaigns (see story, p. 1).

Earlier this month, officials of both companies told journalists they would be adding new technologies to their trucks and vans that would improve safety for all drivers.

The official who heads Daimler’s commercial vehicles division, Eckhard Cordes, said that “90% of all accidents can be avoided, provided the new [safety] technologies are introduced on a broad scale.”

The products that Daimler and Volvo officials discussed and demonstrated included systems they said could help prevent most rear-end collisions; prevent most rollovers; prevent trucks from running off the road or crossing medians; and detect driver drowsiness before an accident occurs — with an alarm to encourage the driver to take a break.

The two manufacturers already have introduced some of the safety systems, and will add more to their trucks in the near future.

While most of these safety systems are being rolled out in Europe, the two companies are also major players in the North American market. Daimler owns the Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star brands, while Volvo owns Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks.

Cordes, in his speech in Stuttgart, Germany, also raised another important point — namely, how the systems are going to be financed.

So far, he said, truck makers have been footing the bill to develop the systems, and in at least some cases offered the products for sale below cost in order to spur fleet interest.

As Cordes said: “Safety systems must pay off in business management terms” if truck makers are going to produce the systems and if highly competitive fleets are going to spend significant amounts of money on them.

He urged European governments to offer lower toll rates to truckers who invest in the safety systems, and asked insurance companies to lower their premiums for vehicles that contain the new safety products.

Such financial relief, in addition to the societal benefits of improving highway safety, might go a long way toward encouraging fleets to invest in these new systems.

This article appears in the May 24 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.