Centaur Coaches

Brigade’s Backeye®360 is ‘Absolutely Going to Save Lives’

Kent based luxury coach operator, Centaur, needed a solution to vehicle damage due to the rear swing. They installed Brigade Electronics’ Backeye®360, and discovered it could not only save them money but also save lives.

With a fleet of 100 minibuses and coaches, Centaur has seen increasing challenges when driving in Central London. Congestion and vulnerable road users require drivers to be very skilled when manoeuvring around the city. For Centaur, the biggest problem is with the blind spot due to the rear swing.

Matt Sims, Managing Director of Centaur explains: ‘Judging the point of the rear corners, in relation to traffic behind and to one side, is the most difficult part of driving a big vehicle in my view, and the area most prone to collision and damage on a coach.’

Centaur trialled Brigade’s Backeye®360 Select, an intelligent camera monitor system designed to eliminate blind spots and assist with low speed manoeuvres. The live images produced by four ultra wide-angle cameras, mounted on each side of the vehicle, are simultaneously sent to an electronic control unit (ECU) where they are instantly processed, combined, blended and stitched,  providing the driver with a real-time surround view of the vehicle in a single image.

With Backeye®360 set to take over the current generation of camera monitor systems, Matt concludes..

…“In my honest opinion, it’s absolutely going to save lives and with four cyclist and HGV fatalities this year in London, the sooner it becomes mandatory the better.  While I’m not advocating it, you could, quite safely, drive without any mirrors if you had to.”