Police call for cab visibility redesign
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by Kathy Watson • Truck manufacturers have been urged by the police this week to research ways of making it easier for LGV drivers to see pedestrians in front of high cabs.
A coroner has also asked for manufacturers to look into a redesign of cabs' windscreens and dashboards so drivers can avoid running down pedestrians directly in front of them.
Three quarters of all accidents involving HGVs striking pedestrians involves an impact with the front of the vehicle. According to the Transport Research Laboratory 130 lives a year could be saved with an improvement in forward vision.
The blind spot in front of high cabs makes it impossible to see pedestrians of under 5ft 3in, says a Midlands accident investigator.
Coroner Vincent Round, who is also calling for cab redesign, last week presided over a Dudley, West Midlands inquest into the death of a 80-year-old widow who was 5ft 3in. The Seddon Atkinson Strato 365 tractor involved in the accident in Lye, West Midlands in February, was fitted with a close proximity side view mirror.
But police demonstrated at the inquest that there was no way it would have helped driver Clive Humphries avoid 80-year-old Ada Wooldridge.
Accident investigator PC Malcolm Bowdler says a simple mirror mounted on the front of the cab, possibly on the sun visor, might have given the visibility needed.
A TRL report to a Munich safety conference in May concluded: "The most effective design change for HGVs would be to lower the bottom of the dashboard and windscreen so that adult pedestrians of average height could be seen even when right up against the front of the truck." Mirror on sun visor—could help front downward view.
El Cab manufacturers and the Department of Transport say that redesigning the front of cabs is not economically viable and could jeopardise the safety of drivers. Last September, the then roads minister Robert Key responded to pressure from some London local authorities by advising operators of older trucks to fit close proximity mirrors: but action on front vision is unlikely, says the DOT