The ultimate challenge? Bringing down the number of traffic related deaths - to ZERO!
The new Traffic Safety Report is alarming:
Accidents with pedestrians and cyclists are increasing.
In Sweden. engineers don’t accept that 1.2 Million people worldwide die in traffic every year.
For many motorists, being rear-ended by a 40-ton truck in a traffic jam is a nightmare scenario.
Equally, for urban pedestrians and cyclists.
It can evoke unpleasant associations and a sense of not being safe.
People are laughing at that, they are saying,
you are so way off, that is impossible you can’t have a world with zero accidents
and now it will take quite some time before we reach that
but the really big thing is you really start thinking about it,
if you don’t even think about it, if you think it is totally impossible, its never going to work.
In the middle of traffic,
involved in major accidents and therefore often at the center of discussion:
heavy trucks and other utility vehicles.
Technology is an important factor when it comes to increasing safety
and we can that general development today,
we can see it in trucks we can see it in cars,
absolutely a vital part – but it’s not the only solution,
we are still humans and we as humans we still do carry a big part of the responsibility.
Volvo Trucks makes a determined effort to sensitize and inform the public
and spread the message to all road users:
we can change traffic related death to Zero – together.
…it’s a very big ambitious vision…
I love living. I don’t want to get killed,
or get killed by somebody else who doesn’t pay attention.
Volvo invited international journalists to sensitize,
discuss and take on the challenge to reduce road accidents to ZERO percent.
Accident research insights, as from a simulator,
flow into the development of new safety features.
Invented by Volvo in 1959
still doing the best job for the safety:
the Safety Belt
which could have prevented 50% of truck drivers’ deaths, had they only worn it.
Since humans are not as perfect as they think they are,
active safety systems kick-in, when the drivers are distracted or unaware of a danger lurking.
We are still the drivers, even we have the drivers support systems,
we need to take responsibility as individuals and as human beings.
Since November 2015 there has been an EU-wide legal requirement
for new two- and three-axle heavy trucks
to be equipped with the function automatic emergency brake.
In 2018 the regulation will become even stricter.
Visibility is key to avoid accidents.
One of the most fatal mistakes of truck drivers
is not to adjust the mirrors and use their full potential.
Pedestrians or cyclists have no perception of what a truck driver can see.
New assistants, such as the electronic eyes can only support visibility.
The Volvo Safety Initiative reaches out globally to children,
pedestrians and bicyclists: “See and be seen” is crucial for their safety.
We don’t want children or other people to think that trucks are dangerous,
we don’t want anyone to be afraid, but we want them to be aware,
where they can be and where they will be safe around trucks
The most vulnerable road users, cyclists and pedestrians,
are also the ones most unaware and distracted: using smartphones
and headphones while navigating through traffic
and pounding on their right of way, while not really playing by the rules.
We need to share the responsibility.
We are all road users and we need to have respect and understanding for each other
and I think today in our society we are a bit stressed
we need to slow down, take it easy and have understanding for each other.
The engineers working on a research project: an autonomous refuse truck
to reduce accidents in built-up areas, not least when reversing.
The route is pre-programmed and the truck drives itself from one bin to the next.
Today too many road users crowd the same space, creating new challenges.
We are a part of it and we need to be part of the solution
but we need the help of the other participants within the traffic
to solve the overall challenges within the traffic safety.
We can do it and we gonna get bangs from very many different places.
We need to work together in here.