A1 HGV crash – What could have been done differently?
Discussion
FiF said:
Those two Volvo videos posted earlier were trucks with avoidance systems. Obviously don't know what the speed of the artic was when the lad ran out from behind the bus, but expect he'd have been very close to being in the driver's blind spot.
Crikey. If one of those videos hadn't been posted by Volvo themselves I would probably have assumed they were fake. Very impressive.FiF said:
Both of those make me feel sick.30 years ago I got hit head-on, in a housing estate of all places. I was on the correct side of the road coming up to a long right hand curve - the speeding idiot coming the other way wasn't...I saw him, had plenty of time to stop and then plenty of time to realise he wasn't going to. I still gives me shivers that the only thing keeping us all apart at times is a painted white line or people paying attention. Your life in their hands at times, literally.
tonyvid said:
FiF said:
Both of those make me feel sick.30 years ago I got hit head-on, in a housing estate of all places. I was on the correct side of the road coming up to a long right hand curve - the speeding idiot coming the other way wasn't...I saw him, had plenty of time to stop and then plenty of time to realise he wasn't going to. I still gives me shivers that the only thing keeping us all apart at times is a painted white line or people paying attention. Your life in their hands at times, literally.
But you make a valid point that every minute of every day there are vehicles passing each other within a foot or so at closing speeds over 100mph and no harm.
There are many situations,where you simply cannot mitigate all the risk. The oncoming car is a good example. The event could take a second or less. Sometimes it is just a matter of luck.
On the positive side many accidents are avoided by people anticipating problems and avoiding the conflict.
"That driver doesn't seem to know where he is going..he could do anything" scenario.
"That truck is closing in another.. it is changing lanes to overtake, even though I am closing at +30mph.
That train of cars in lane 3 are at 10m intervals...this could go bad very quickly.
There are loads of situations where experience builds in safety.
On the positive side many accidents are avoided by people anticipating problems and avoiding the conflict.
"That driver doesn't seem to know where he is going..he could do anything" scenario.
"That truck is closing in another.. it is changing lanes to overtake, even though I am closing at +30mph.
That train of cars in lane 3 are at 10m intervals...this could go bad very quickly.
There are loads of situations where experience builds in safety.
I have wondered why, with all the measures that get added to vehicles in the name of safety, why haven't driver attention and radar cruise control/collision avoidance been mandatory on lorries for the last 20 years or so that they've been common on higher specced cars? Literally force them to keep a safe stopping distance from the truck in front and slam on the brakes if it detects the driver isn't paying attention or is going to pile into stationary traffic.
Yes, I know some drivers would have circumvented it and moaned about the nanny state, but knowing they had frigged their trucks you would hope they'd be more careful rather than going on the internet at 56mph.
LGV tractors have cost well north of £100k for donkeys years so it's not like the additional cost would be significant.
Yes, I know some drivers would have circumvented it and moaned about the nanny state, but knowing they had frigged their trucks you would hope they'd be more careful rather than going on the internet at 56mph.
LGV tractors have cost well north of £100k for donkeys years so it's not like the additional cost would be significant.
whimsical ninja said:
Out of interest, do any HGVs have collision avoidance systems these days?
Yes, or at least 1 of ours does. It likes to go off randomly every so often at higher speed, I've no idea if it's seen brake lights 300 metres away or what, if it did it more often then I would expect its over sensitive but its once a shift if that that it goes off randomly, thankfully without the emergency braking at the same time...Slower speeds, approaching behind a vehicle that is turning left into a side road for example, it'll go off and harsh brake sometimes even when you as the driver know full well that you've scrubbed off enough speed and left enough space.
I wish we lived in a world where we didn't need the technology.
It's like this intelligent speed adaptation malarkey, that works off reading speed signs and known limits from whichever road the sat nav thinks you are on.
It changes the limit surprisingly quickly, and I guess some day it will automatically apply a limiter so you cannot exceed whatever limit it thinks is in force. But it only changes at or very soon after the sign. So if you going at 50, enter a 30, system then theoretically slows you to 30, but what distance have you then covered over 30? It's still beholden on the driver to pay attention and drive legally and at an appropriate speed.
Then for those who watch Ashley Neal Driving Instructor videos, you might have seen the time the ISA system in an Audi set the limit at 80 for a UK motorway slip road. Oops
It changes the limit surprisingly quickly, and I guess some day it will automatically apply a limiter so you cannot exceed whatever limit it thinks is in force. But it only changes at or very soon after the sign. So if you going at 50, enter a 30, system then theoretically slows you to 30, but what distance have you then covered over 30? It's still beholden on the driver to pay attention and drive legally and at an appropriate speed.
Then for those who watch Ashley Neal Driving Instructor videos, you might have seen the time the ISA system in an Audi set the limit at 80 for a UK motorway slip road. Oops
Gassing Station | Advanced Driving | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff