FMCSA Releases Research on Benefits of Speed Limiters in Large Trucks

Benjamin Smith
Principal Technical Analyst
MSC MS

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released research this week on the benefits of using speed limiters (SLs), also known as speed governors, in large trucks. For more information, view the FMCSA's document, titled "Speed-Limiters."

SLs are a technology that allows trucking fleets or truck owners to program a preset maximum speed of travel. Many trucking fleets use SLs not only to increase safety by reducing their trucks’ top speed, but also to reduce tire wear, extend the life of the brakes and engine, improve fuel economy, and so on.

In January 2011, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed limiting the speed of all heavy trucks to 68mph. NHTSA stated its intent to initiate the rulemaking process on this issue in 2012. Read NHTSA's notice in the Jan. 3, 2011 Federal Register.

Viewpoints differ on the issue of mandating the use of SLs in heavy trucks. Agencies and groups such as the American Trucking Associations (ATA), Road Safe America, and the Truckload Carriers Association, have stated their support for SLs in large trucks for reasons including reduced severity of crashes and various economic benefits. However, critics of government-mandated SLs, such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), have stated their opposition for reasons such as the potential for speed-governed trucks to become “rolling roadblocks” when operating in faster flows of traffic.

Research published in the American Journal of Public Health in March 2009, titled “The Effect of State Regulations on Truck-Crash Fatalities,” examines the effects of certain traffic safety policies and restrictions on fatality rates in truck-involved crashes.

AAA Survey: Parents Responding Postively to Car Seat Compliance

Kevin Jones
Technical Analyst
MSC

According to a new survey by AAA, outreach efforts to educate parents of children under age 13 regarding child safety seat use have yielded positive results. Nearly a year ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated its recommendations regarding the use of rearward-facing seats for children over the age of one, recommending that children remain in rearward-facing car seats until age two—or until the child exceeds the height and weight limits of the child seat. Read our earlier blog post, "New Child Seat Recommendations from the AAP and NHTSA" to learn more.

AAA found that over 90% of the parents with children under age 13 heard of the new guidelines by the AAP. Several parents heard of these guidelines from their child’s pediatrician. AAA also found that one in three of the parents surveyed changed how they allowed their child to travel in the vehicles.

Seventy-seven percent of parents with children younger than age two who did not make any changes based on the AAP’s recommendations reported that they were already meeting or exceeding these guidelines. However, there were other parents who were allowing their children to graduate to bigger seats or seatbelt use prematurely for reasons such as discomfort.

AAA’s article, "AAA Survey Reveals 'Boost' in Car Seat Compliance," reinforces the need for parents to follow the guidelines set forth by the AAP in order to help reduce serious injuries and death among children in automobile crashes. The article can be found in AAA's "Newsroom."

Bendix ABS Research by Ben Smith Forthcoming at SAE 2012 World Congress

Kelly Messerschmidt
Technical Communications Manager
MSC

Messerschmidt Safety Consultants (MSC) is proud to announce that Benjamin Smith, in conjunction with Timothy Austin of the Wisconsin State Patrol and Mike Farrell of Fox Valley Technical College, will have their most recent research published at the upcoming Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2012 World Congress in Detroit, Michigan, April 24-26.

Their technical paper, “An Examination of Diagnostic Event Data in Bendix Antilock Brake System Electronic Control Units,” will be presented during the Event Data Recorders (EDR) section of the Occupant Protection session.

The paper pertains to the function and accuracy of the Bendix EC-60 and EC-30 ABS controllers in real-world crash scenarios. In particular, the study focuses on the diagnostic event recording and reporting functions within the electronic controllers of Bendix ABS systems.

This research is unique, as it is the first time that Bendix ABS systems have been formally explored as a source of crash event data in the investigations of motor vehicle crashes. The underlying research for this paper was conducted in the spring of last year on late-model Volvo and International commercial vehicles in Appleton, Wisconsin.

National Sleep Foundation 2012 Poll: Transportation Professionals' Sleep Habits, Work Performance

Kelly Messerschmidt
Technical Communications Manager
MSC

National Sleep Awareness Week is currently being observed in the US (March 5-11, 2012). According to the National Sleep Foundation 2012 poll--the first to ask transportation professionals about their sleep habits and work performance--11% of pilots, train operators, and bus/taxi/limo drivers, and 8% of truck drivers are "sleepy." Read the press release.

The poll also found that 14% of truck drivers, and 12% of bus/taxi/limo drivers polled reported having had a "near miss" due to sleepiness. Although individuals' sleep needs vary, most research assumes that normal adults sleep for 7-8 hours per night.

In NHTSA's "Drowsy Driving and Automobile Crashes" report, shift-workers whose sleep is disrupted by working at night, or working long or irregular hours, are categorized as being one of the three population groups at highest risk for "drowsy-driving" crashes. According to the National Sleep Foundation 2012 poll, a significant number of the transportation workers said their schedules do not allow enough time for sleep.

NHTSA Proposes Guidelines Against “Excessively Distracting Devices”

William Messerschmidt
Principal Technical Analyst
MSC

On 02/24/12, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed new guidelines for auto manufacturers that cover original-equipment, in-vehicle devices that augment or facilitate “secondary tasks” in which visual information is received and a physical action is performed in response to that information.

By “secondary tasks,” NHTSA means actions that we perform while we operate or control the vehicle, which are not part of the primary task (driving), such as entertainment and communication. For example, the timely prompt from your GPS device to “in a half mile, make a right turn,” is considered part of the primary task (driving), but texting a friend your arrival time is a secondary task.

Almost all drivers engage in secondary tasks while driving (such as adjusting climate control, changing radio stations), and often there is very little decrease in their safety. However, as technological advances make more and more options accessible to the driver, the potential exists to build in dangerous devices. For example: your in-dash GPS display isn’t a distraction under most circumstances, but imagine if that same display showed your Facebook News Feed! [Please note that absolutely no manufacturer has ever proposed this extreme example.]

In order to differentiate between the less extreme (and more realistic) examples of safe versus unsafe technology, researchers considered variables such as the type of information displayed, the manner in which it is displayed, and the type of manual response elicited by the information.

The NHTSA guideline describes five types of displays or devices that are always unsafe. They are:

• Photographic or video images not immediately related to driving (images such as blindspot cameras, GPS navigation, and weather information are considered directly related to the driving task);
• Photographic or graphical static visual images that are unrelated to driving (such as album art and personal photos);
  
• Automatically scrolling text;
• Manual text entry of more than six key presses;
• Reading more than 30 characters (not including spaces and punctuation).

You can read a short summary of the new NHTSA Guidelines at Occupational Safety Online, or view the document in its entirety in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, Issue 37.