Truck Safety Advocates Call NHTSA to Mandate Automatic Braking Systems
Truck safety advocates are requesting that automatic braking systems be mandatory for vehicles and buses with a gross vehicle weight at or exceeding 10,000 pounds. The four main interest groups pushing for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to mandate the safety system are Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, the Center for Auto Safety and Road Safe America. The safety addition would warn drivers to slow down in traffic and would apply the brakes if a driver fails to do so.
According to safety advocates, mandating the safety feature would save many lives and would prevent major highway accidents. Currently, only three percent of the three million tractor trailers on the road have a form of this technology. “Many hundreds of lives could be saved each year if trucks are equipped with automatic braking systems. NHTSA should move quickly to require this safety technology on all trucks,” Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety shared in a statement. More than 4,000 people are killed in trucking accidents every year, according to NHTSA. Automatic braking systems would prevent more than 2,500 of those crashes.
Safety systems should not be exclusive to luxury or expensive vehicles. NHTSA should require that these safety features be installed in all vehicles like seat belts and airbags.
Source: Fleet Owner