side view of a trailer truck

Developments in truck safety — such as automatic braking and lane departure warning systems — can prevent up to 63,000 truck crashes per year. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety now recommends that all large trucks, both existing and new, get equipped with four (4) types of safety technologies to dramatically reduce truck crashes and resulting injuries in death.

The report is entitled “Leverage Large: Technology and Engineering to Realize Safety Gains”. The report recommends: in-cab video cameras and sensors to monitor a truck driver’s behavior and performance; automatic emergency braking; air disc brakes; and lane departure warning systems.

The safety report concludes the benefit of equipping new and existing trucks, “far outweighs the cost” when the reduction in truck crashes is factored. Here are the hard statistics:

A. Lane departure warning systems can prevent up to 6,372 crashes, 1,342 injuries, and 115 trucking related deaths each year; B. Video based on board safety monitoring systems can prevent as many as 63,000 truck crashes, 17,733 injuries, and 293 trucking related deaths each year; C. Automatic emergency braking can prevent up to 5,294 truck crashes, 2,753 truck injuries, and 55 truck related deaths each year; and D. Air disc brakes can prevent up to 2,411 truck crashes, 1,447 truck injuries, and 37 trucking deaths each year. Similarly, a 2011 study commissioned by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration previously concluded that the benefits of lane departure warning systems outweigh their costs.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is a not-for-profit charitable research and educational organization. AAA was established in 1947 to promote traffic safety and reduce collisions, injuries, and deaths related to collisions.

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