These are safe ways to make progress
Page 33
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Vehicle manufacturers are doing a lot, but operators would be wise not to let cost deter them from fitting several extras now on the market, advises Steve Gray. One is QH's new Brake Stop
4 THE MOTOR INDUSTRY it is lien said that it is virtually imossible to sell either primary or .1condary safety.
In spite of the efforts of certain ir and accessory makers, even rivate motorists remain indifwent — especially if it means lem spending money. And 'hen it comes to most commeral vehicle operators, manufacirers really are flogging a dead
Orse,
But there are notable excepo n s. Oil companies, for xample, are extremely )nscious of their public image. n accident involving an oil )mpany's vehicle — regardless blame — is quickly reported in le local press, and sales in that -ea are depressed as a result, 'ten for several months.
These companies spend many ousands of pounds making ire their vehicles are fitted with safety devices to protect the public as well as their drivers. Anti-lock braking systems, reversing bleepers, fog and spot lights, ice warning devices — all of these and more are used in an endeavour to cut the risks.
Other own-account operators — and indeed some hire or reward hauliers — are equally safety minded, but regrettably they tend to be in a minority. Where safety devices need some positive action to operate them, the human factors, in the shape of the driver, comes in and dilutes or completely eliminates their effectiveness. Thus while a vehicle may have, say, high-intensity rear fog lamps, they are totally useless if the driver doesn't switch them on when it's foggy!
All this sounds very bleak, but things aren't quite as bad as they might seem.
Lorry manufacturers are obliged by legislation to build their vehicles to certain safety standards. Impact tests must be carried out on new cab designs to ensure that there is a high degree of primary safety.
The demands for higher standards of driver comfort has improved the working environment by reducing cab interior noise and cutting driver stress — both valuablecontributions to safety in themselves.
Items which might at one time have been classed as extras or accessories are now incorporated on the production line. Heated mirrors have become the norm — one wonders how we ever got on without them — while headlamp washers or even wash-wipe systems are finding increasing popularity.
Advances in vehicle lighting systems and their increased capabilities have more than kept pace with vehicle performance. Halogen headlamps, too, are being fitted more and more by truck makers while the mandatory fitment of hazard warning flashers and eventually high-intensity fog lamps is on its way.
It seems, then, that legislation is invariably the spur rather than a demand from operators. Often the EEC bureaucrats seem to introduce requirements which at first sight are nonsensical while other more vital legislation is ignored.
One area of hgv design which has been looked at is the back end of both rigid vehicles and trailers.
Although the numbers of underrun accidents, taken as a percentage of the total road traffic accident scene, is fairly low, they do contribute greatly to the fatality lists.
Underruns occur when a ear hits the rear of a commercial vehicle and effectively buries itself into it All too often, the carefully designed energy absorbing frontal area of the car does not make contact with the commercial vehicle but the roof section (the weakest part of the car) does.
The result is fairly obvious — serious injury to the occupants of the car, or even death. Naturally, the EEC has decided there should be a standard of vehicle construction to try to prevent these nasty accidents. Some kind of underride protection is now necessary and manufacturers are obliged to fit some sort of underrun bumper.
According to the EEC, either a rigid or energy absorbing underrun bar, capable of taking up to a 10-tonne (9.8-ton) force on the centre of the cross-beam, must be fitted. Now, while the former is a simple enough device to arrange — one simply