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Citation
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Knight I, Grover C, Avery M. 27th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV); April 3-6, 2023; Abstract #: 23-0264, pp. 12p. Washington, DC USA: US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2023 open access. |
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Abstract
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27th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV): Enhanced and Equitable Vehicle Safety for All: Toward the Next 50 Years
https://www-esv.nhtsa.dot.gov/Proceedings/27/27ESV-000264.pdf
In Europe, Heavy Goods Vehicles (GVW>3,500kg, aka trucks), represent around 1.5% of registered vehicles, and about 6% of traffic (vehicle km) but are involved in collisions resulting in nearly 15% of road fatalities. Goods transport is an essential fact of modern life, delivering most of our food and luxuries. This link to standard of living will tend to drive increasing truck use and Vision Zero clearly will not be achieved, unless action is taken to improve HGV safety. Size and mass bring significant difficulty but the challenges are not only technical. Freight transport runs on slim margins. Payload capacity, vehicle uptime, fuel and maintenance bills can all outweigh the latest safety innovation when it comes to vehicle specifications. How can we ensure a rating has influence when the relationship between Euro NCAP and the vehicle buyer will be business to business and not business to consumer? How can we create the market for safety that manufacturers need to allow innovation? One make and model can cover variants from an 18 tonne rigid for urban distribution, through off-road construction vehicles and on to 60 tonne multi-trailer combinations for long haul. How can the rating be applied in a meaningful yet economic way?
This paper summarises several years of work to find the answer to these questions, that has involved analysing collision data, investigating the availability, effectiveness and operational constraints of different technical safety measures that could be promoted, and engaging extensively with road owners, safety organisations, the freight operations industry and the vehicle industry. New and quite stringent regulation of HGV safety is imminent in Europe and this has also been a major consideration. Does this already solve the problems? Is there a need to go further? These questions are considered via a case study of measures intended to protect vulnerable road users.
The end result is what we believe to be a globally unique application of the consumer rating approach to solve a complex and multi-faceted problem. |