Posted: June 2020
According to recent research by The European Transport Safety Council, 25% of road deaths in the EU involve a goods vehicle. Meanwhile, statistics from Transport for London show that HGVs are involved in more than 80% of vulnerable road user fatalities in the City, despite making up only 4% of traffic. Alongside this, reports from the World Health Organization show that construction, agriculture and mining are amongst some of the highest-risk work populations in the world with many injuries and fatalities caused by moving vehicles or machinery.
Sadly, these statistics show that there is still much to be done in preventing deaths and injuries caused by vehicles both on roads and in the workplace.
For fleet operators, ensuring their vehicles are safe is clearly a huge priority. Appropriate measures for vehicle and machinery safety are crucial to addressing issues both on and off the road. However, ensuring these are integrated successfully into a company’s safety policy and communicated to drivers, operators and other employees is essential to ensuring they remain effective.
Here at Brigade we have many years of experience helping fleet operators to navigate commercial vehicle safety, regulations and legislation. While we always have our attention on helping you to meet your objectives and comply with road and site safety standards, we also believe that safety solutions should surpass these requirements to ensure that road and site safety is positively enhanced for all. This has never been more crucial than when it comes to improving and enhancing driver visibility and solving the issue of blind spot fatalities.
One of the main causes of collisions involving deaths and injuries is blind spots. Driver visibility can be limited due to various factors. These include:
Manoeuvring vehicles at low speeds is one of the most common causes of deaths and injuries to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. Likewise, ground workers operating on noisy sites in difficult conditions, often with reduced visibility, are also at extremely high risk of being hit by moving vehicles and machinery. However, all incidents are preventable.
Depending on the vehicle type and use, there are multiple technology solutions that can be fitted to enhance safety and eliminate blind spots – even on the bulkiest machines and complex blind spots.
Brigade Electronics offers a range of impressive and world-leading vehicle safety devices that work to minimise blind spots and alert drivers, as well as those in the vicinity of the vehicle, of imminent danger.
This life-saving technology includes audible warning alarms, such as our bbs-tek® White Sound® reversing alarm, which emits a ‘ssh-ssh’ sound, similar to breaking waves, making it highly directional, gentler on the ear and easier for pedestrians to pinpoint. With its multi-frequency range, White Sound® alarms can operate effectively at five decibels lower than a conventional beeping alarm, making them approved for night-time deliveries.
As well as bbs-tek®, Brigade’s award-winning Backeye®360 has been supporting drivers and improving safety for many years. This intelligent camera monitor system allows drivers to keep a close eye on blind spots at the back and sides of their vehicles so they can instantly see people, objects and other vehicles in the vicinity.
Brigade’s latest addition to the Backeye®360 family is the BN360-300, which gives drivers a clear and crisp image thanks to its new high definition specification. This makes it ideal for industries such as construction and quarrying, where safety is a huge concern, as well as recording and providing clear images that may be required for gathering evidence.
In addition to audible alerts and cameras, radar sensors can provide an enhanced level of protection. Designed to detect people and objects in blind spots, radar sensors have proven to significantly reduce accidents. Our Backsense® radar sensors are available in fixed detection range models and fully programmable models allowing bespoke detection areas to be set and offering the ability to calibrate the system according to the vehicle’s bodywork.
