LSM Technologies- WHS Queensland Transport Safety Forum

Many thanks to the WHS Queensland for the invite to speak at the recent Transport Safety Forum, which attracted nearly 100 participants. LSM Technologies presented a few of the evolving ADAS and AI mitigation technology developments, as well as new transport safety legislation ADR's that require mitigation controls that intervene (eg AEB) to overcome human error, behaviour, distraction, situational awareness delays and other contributing risk factors.

LSM provided an overview of only some of the new evolving safety mitigation controls designed for transport vehicles that effect the safety of our road / rail network and infrastructure, such as overweight vehicle impacts of bridges and structures, truck and train collision on railway level crossings, tyre monitoring, amongst some of the latest new ADR legislations.

The latest legislated ADR's for safety mitigation controls are:

ADR35/07: specifies braking requirements on commercial vehicles and large passenger vehicles to ensure safe braking under normal and emergency conditions (ESC and ACB).
ADR97/00: specifies Advanced Emergency Braking Systems (AEB) fitted to omnibuses, and to goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes ‘Gross Vehicle Mass’, to avoid or mitigate the severity of rear-end in lane collisions.
ADR108/00: specifies provisions for means of rear visibility and proximity detection that would improve the driver’s awareness of vulnerable road users behind vehicles when reversing, and also includes the requirement for AEB.

A few significant takeaways from the LSM presentation worth considering are:

When endeavouring to mitigate a risk, one needs to ensure not to create other risks.
Safety mitigation with the use of AI / ADAS safety controls can only be assured with fully autonomous vehicles and where human and vehicle separation is assured.
ADR regulations cover only new vehicles, but over 5 million heavy / commercial vehicles remain on the road, potentially for +20 years, posing risks that conflict with ADR safety goals.
Whilst technology is advanced, human reaction for situational awareness and corrective action is too slow, making automatic driver intervention essential"
Humans are prone to error, mistakes, distraction, complacency, and, at times, outright non-compliance (risk taking).
Too many AI / ADAS audible and visual (multiple) alerts in the cabin can be distracting.
Human error and distraction are not limited to truck drivers; other road users suffering from the same impacts the truck driver’s response time to take corrective action.
Enforcement and Penalties have proven to have limited mitigation effect - we still have unacceptable carnage on the road.
And there is more to consider..........................................