Unique Auto

Posts Tagged ‘Road safety’

Volvo are conducting a large field test with the aim of preventing any injury or accident in a Volvo by 2020.

Around 100 Volvo V70 and XC70 cars have been fitted with state-of-the-art technology which will monitor how people deal with different driving situations.

The technology will monitor the drivers behaviour whilst driving and analyse how this changes depending on the situation. The tests called EuroFOT (Field Operational Tests) are being conducted as part of a wider project involving other research organisations.

What happens is there are cameras actually within the car that can look at how a drivers head and eyes move. The car also films a view from the front and back of the car and analyses how the driver's behaviour changes with different situations.

"In order to move towards a crash-free future, we need to learn more about what kind of mistakes and situations that might lead to accidents," says John-Fredrik Grönvall, senior Research engineer and leader of the Field Operational Tests (FOT) at Volvo Cars.

"In Sweden, 150 Volvo vehicles will be included in the project; 100 cars and 50 trucks equipped with advanced logging devices. In addition, 275 vehicles in Europe will get less advanced equipment and another 1,000 responses will be secured by letting the drivers fill in a survey," says Trent Victor, research leader for Road User Behaviour at SAFER.

This will actually allow Volvo to get some real purchases on their vehicles if this actually works so they are being very clever about it.

In the future this type of research could well lead to an environment that is completely crash free. This will use existing safety technology to really help with the future of driving as if this prevented an accident from happening it would be brilliant.

Of course it is obvious that a lot of people are just not interested in getting a Volvo which is why of course you could look into getting BMW Cars. The BMW 1 series has got to be the way forward on this so you should really look into getting one of these. Of course you could always go after used cars as these can also prove to be help you out a lot. You should decide on this one.

A South Yorkshire delivery driver narrowly escaped a very nasty accident when he followed sat nave instructions that led him to the edge of a cliff.

Robert Jones was following an unfamiliar route home after a night out in the Pennines. He continued to follow his sat nav guidance even when it directed him down a steep lane that was clearly not intended for vehicles. It was only when is silver BMW 5 series car hit a fence on the edge of a cliff that he realized there was a problem.

Mr Jones was charged with driving without due care and attention. Mr Jones denied the charge saying that he was simply following the instructions provided by his Tom Tom, but he was convicted and fined £370 plus £500 in cost as well as receiving 6 points on his license.  After the case he said that he still used his sat nav and that it had never let me down before.

The popularity and reliance on sat nav systems has been blamed for causing many accidents in the UK. Earlier in 2009 a young man was guided by his sat nav onto a railway line in Goole which led to him being banned from driving for 20 months.

A similar thing happened to a driver in Sussex who avoided prosecution after driving onto a railway line. She had tried to make her Vauxhall contract hire company responsible as she said that they had set up her sat nav system.

Drivers have been reminded that they are responsible for their sat nav systems, even if they were supplied and fitted by their cheap car lease or car hire company. If sat nave instructions lead somewhere that is unsuitable it is the drivers responsibility to ignore the instructions.

Many drivers have admitted performing sudden manoeuvres as a result of instructions from their sat navs and as many as 300,000 accidents are estimated to have been caused by such actions.

A significant proportion of road traffic accidents are caused by drivers who are not aware that other road users are close to their own vehicle.  These accidents are often related to a change of direction at crossings, junctions, roundabouts or blind turns.If larger vehicles are involved it is possible that these accidents can lead to fatalities.  Surprisingly, it is in the face of such serious consequences that the humble roadside traffic mirror can prove to be a potential life saver.

We see them in everyday use, mostly for purposes of security in shops and warehouses – convex safety mirrors which usually come in either rectangular or circular form.  They consist of a mirror face made of shatterproof acrylic and housing made from unbreakable ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic which is UV treated to protect it from the discolouring of bright sunlight.

Traffic mirrors are suitable at sites where traffic on the road is travelling at a speed where visibility for oncoming or emerging vehicles is virtually zero.They assist drivers in avoiding situations that could lead to accidents – common high risk collision hotspots are driveways, concealed entrances as well as crossroads and intersections.

These mirrors are found not just on the roads but also on the vehicles that travel on them, being as they are a vital road safety component of the rear view mirrors on HGVs.It is critical that these lorry drivers pay particular attention to what is in their blind spot as visibility is of paramount importance.

So keep an eye on your rear view mirrors, but dont forget to keep your eyes moving around on the road ahead.Many drivers can develop a hypnotic stare at a point of on the road in front of them and not consider what is in their peripheral vision.This could prove to be a serious mistake – if they failed to notice the mirror letting them know about the HGV hurtling around the next blind turn, it could be the last mistake they make.