NTSB Issues Tractor-Trailor Safety Recommendations

Friday, April 18, 2014

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued several non-binding recommendations to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asking that they take specific actions to enhance the safety of tractor-trailers. Included among the recommended actions were to initiate new or amended regulations to enhance blind spot visibility, add side underride protection and increase the protection from full width and offset rear impacts.

The NTSB specifically noted several key statistics:

  • Crashes in which drivers of large trucks needed to use their mirrors to complete their maneuvers (mirror-relevant crashes) comprised 20% of all large truck crashes
  • Mirror-relevant crashes involving the right side of trucks (lane change/merge and right turns) were more than 4x as common as those involving the left side
  • Right-side impacts accounted for 27% of all fatalities involving large truck accidents
  • Side impacts comprised 15% of fatal collisions between large trucks and passenger vehicles

Consequently, the NTSB agreed with Reed and colleagues by identifying the right side of the tractor cab and the right side of the trailor as the two most important vision areas that need improvement, and recommends that NHTSA require all newly manufactured truck-tractors with GVWRs over 26,000 pounds be equipped with visibility enhancement systems to improve the ability of drivers to detect passenger vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists in their blind spots.

Enter the Aero Cam... There is no better visibility enhancement system on the market. It's designed around the suggested optimal height and width recommendations identified by NHTSA to provide the driver with dedicated views of blind spots and passing lanes around the vehicle, resulting in an intuitive visual experience that improves safety and reduces the potential for costly and dangerous accidents.

Click Here to download and read the report; click Here to learn more about the Velvac Aero Cam and how it addresses the issues raised in NTSB's recommendations.