The Life Saving Potential of Truck Crash Avoidance Technology

The drivers of large commercial trucks owe a duty of care, as does every driver, to exercise caution when they are driving those massive trucks and to operate their vehicle in such a way that does not endanger the lives of those with others on the roadways. But truck accidents happen, and when they involve smaller passenger vehicles they often cause devastating injuries and death. Right now, technology exists that could lessen and even eliminate certain types of truck accidents – rear-end crashes to be specific – that occur due to driver error.

This technology is called F-CAM, or forward collision avoidance and mitigation. It is available already as an option for 18-wheelers and other commercial trucks and heavy vehicles (more than 10,000 GMV). Four of the major highway safety lobbying organizations are on a mission to make sure that this equipment becomes standard in commercial trucks and heavy vehicles that share the highways with passenger cars in the same way that seatbelts are standard equipment in vehicles today.

The four safety advocate groups are: Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety; Truck Safety Coalition; Center for Auto Safety, and Road Safe America. The NHTSA has determined that the existing F-CAM technology systems have the potential to prevent approximately 2,500 crashes each year, and that future systems could prevent as many as 6,300 crashes each year, however the agency has not yet determined if it will make these systems mandatory for commercial vehicles. These safety groups have requested and the NHTSA has agreed to study these crash avoidance systems and decide whether it is feasible to require commercial trucks and other heavy vehicles to be equipped with these devices.

How does F-CAM technology help avoid (or mitigate) rear-end crashes?

Have you ever had the experience of being behind the wheel, traveling along at speed that moves with the flow of traffic when before you know it, you see nothing but brake lights ahead and you have to almost slam on the brakes in order to avoid crashing into the back of the vehicle in front of you? In a passenger vehicle, if your brakes are good, this should not be a problem. However, larger trucks require a bit more braking distance depending on the weight of their load and the grade of incline on the highway. What if it were a large truck that was getting ready to crash into the back of the vehicle in front of it, and what if the driver of that truck were texting on his phone, or groggy because she had violated hours of service regulations, and did not apply the brakes in time? That is how these devastating, but preventable accidents occur.

The F-CAM technology consists of sensors that can detect when the vehicle is coming too close to another vehicle in front of it. The device will first set off an alarm that warns the driver that they are traveling too close to the obstacle in front of them. If the driver does not respond and begin braking, then the F-CAM sensor will kick in and apply the brakes. This can either avoid a crash all together, or mitigate the results of a crash that was unavoidable.

F-CAM technology has the potential to prevent some of the accidents that occur due to driver error when a massive, commercial truck crashes into the back of a passenger vehicle on the highway.

While this life-saving technology is already available it is not in all commercial trucks on the road. If you have been injured in a truck accident in Tennessee, you are welcome to contact the knowledgeable Memphis truck accident attorneys from the law firm of Bailey & Greer, PLLC to discuss your case in a free consultation in Jackson or Memphis.