WAS: Innovating Ambulance and Specialist Vehicle Manufacturing with Advanced Safety Systems

WAS is a leading manufacturer of specialist vehicles and ambulances and has been supplying vehicles all over the world since 1987.

At the production sites in Emsbüren and Lysomice in Poland, a total of around 600 employees plan and manufacture sophisticated special vehicles and ambulances for the rescue service, fire department, police, disaster control and mountain rescue services.

Innovation and progress are top priorities at WAS. Back in 2018, WAS presented the first zero-emission ambulance in the 5.5 t class at RettMobil. Just in time for RettMobil 2022, WAS presented the new WAS 500 E-RTW, equipped with a Brigade Backeye 360 system, after the first vehicle had been on a “practical tour” in Germany. WAS vehicles are individually tailored to customer requirements

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Our aim is to offer our customers maximum safety and comfort thanks to our high quality,

Luke Brenneke

Product Manager, WAS

Most of the vehicles manufactured are built for the safety or rescue of human life; therefore it is important that the vehicles offer maximum safety for drivers and passengers.

The Brigade Backeye 360 offers precisely this level of safety. The system provides the driver with an all-round view of the vehicle in real time with a single image. It consists of four ultra-wide-angle cameras, each covering an entire side of the vehicle with a viewing angle of more than 180°. The calibrated cameras are mounted at the vehicle’s front, side and rear and capture the entire surroundings

With the Brigade 360 system, you avoid blind spots.

Dinesh Thiru

Area Sales Manager, Brigade Elektronik GmbH

This system makes all blind spots visible in front of, next to and behind the vehicle. The comprehensive bird’s eye view helps the driver to manoeuvre at low speed, for example in narrow streets in residential areas, in hectic traffic or during difficult turning manoeuvres.

Particularly in the rescue sector, personnel are often exposed to stressful situations when on emergency calls. An additional vehicle safety system helps drivers to manoeuvre in these stressful situations in particular, as they can see at a glance on the monitor whether there are people or obstacles in front of, next to or behind the vehicle. This actively helps to avoid accidents, which also prevents accident damage and downtime for emergency vehicles. The 360° camera monitor system also serves as a turning aid in normal inner-city traffic.

It is also possible to integrate an interior monitoring system from Brigade. For this purpose, an additional wide-angle camera is installed in the patient compartment, which is also displayed on the monitor in the driver’s cab. This provides additional safety for rescue personnel in the event of assaults or in extreme situations when the patient becomes unstable.