July 2001
|
July 2001 |
|
Big
Splash from NTSB -- Board Calls for Mandatory Collision Warning Systems for
Heavy Trucks NTSB has issued a series of recommendations to the US Department of Transportation and others that, if implemented, would lead to adoption of collision warning systems (CWS) on all commercial vehicles. |
|
|
|
|
|
Simultaneously, the board called on ITS America to work with trade associations, manufacturers, and federal agencies to increase the public's understanding of the benefits of these technologies. Specifically, NTSB called for a US Department of Transportation rulemaking to set the performance standards for CWS and ACC on new commercial vehicles. The board emphasized the need to better understand some related technical and human-factors aspects of these systems, including obstacle detection distance, timing of alerts, and the mode and type of warning. The recommendations also suggested that USDOT require that
collision warning systems be included on all new commercial vehicles, once the
performance standards were in place. (NTSB member John Hammerschmidt
did not agree with this recommendation. The other two recommendations
aimed at USDOT were adopted unanimously.) The board referred to the work under way by government and industry in these areas as "encouraging" but added that the "pace of testing and of standards development is cause for concern given the increasing number of rear-end collisions and the number of fatalities when commercial vehicles are involved." Its recommendations were underscored by the 1,923 fatal crashes that resulted from the 1,848,000 rear-end collisions in 1999. Forty percent of these fatal crashes involved trucks or buses weighing more than 10,000 pounds – "even though commercial vehicles only accounted for 3 percent of vehicles and 7 percent of vehicle miles traveled," it said in a letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Also, NTSB noted that commercial vehicles were involved in a surprising 62 percent of all fatal rear-end crashes in work zones. NTSB referred to ITS America as "a group that can help disseminate the positive experiences with ACC and the CWS." It suggested that a demonstration of these technologies could increase public understanding of the benefits of the devices and the results of field tests. (Calls were made for ITS America to reprise its successful “Demo ‘99” during the Advanced Vehicle Control and Safety Systems Technical Committee meeting in Miami in early June, as well.) The board also issued specific safety recommendations to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; the Federal Highway Administration; and to automobile, motorcoach, and truck manufacturers. Meanwhile, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently completed what it called a "modest" field operational test using the Eaton VORAD EVT-300 Collision Warning System on several of Caltrans' transport trucks. This test followed an earlier positive experience with the technology implemented on a state-operated snowplow. "The [latest] test was so successful that we are now considering the deployment of CWS on the majority of the heavy vehicles in our fleet ... where it makes sense; some types of vehicles would not receive much benefit," said Greg Larson, the chief of Caltrans' Office of Advanced Highway Systems. Larson, who chairs ITS America's Advanced Vehicle Control and Safety Systems Committee, also said a group of US representatives is working to establish international standards for ACC and CWS. [Top] ... on NTSB's mission, see: http://www.ntsb.gov/Abt_NTSB/guide.htm ... for the text of NTSB's recommendation letters:
[Top]
|
|
|
Copyright 2001: IVsource.net and Richard Bishop Consulting (RBC). All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
July 2001 |