An insurance organization urges Amazon, FedEx, and similar companies to incorporate more safety technologies in their delivery trucks.
Approximately 500,000 light vans are sold in the United States annually, with a significant portion being bought by large companies such as Amazon and FedEx to transport packages across the nation. However, these vans are frequently involved in accidents that could potentially be avoided with existing safety technologies.
These vehicles, with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) below 10,000 pounds, account for an average of 935,000 police-reported crashes per year, resulting in 98,000 injuries and 3,600 fatalities, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Some of these accidents could have been prevented by installing common safety features found in passenger cars and SUVs.
Nevin Skidmore, a spokesperson for the IIHS, mentioned, "The fact that a light van comes with a death rate per mile driven that rivals that of large SUVs and pickups is of major concern." Some of the crashes could be prevented by employing readily available crash prevention technologies.
Light vans, including the Ford Transit, Ram ProMaster, and Mercedes Sprinter, are small, easy to maneuver, and possess generous cargo space, making them ideal for package delivery.
The IIHS research indicates that front crash prevention technologies, such as automatic emergency braking, could prevent approximately 20% of fatal crashes involving these vans. Moreover, lane departure prevention technology may have helped reduce the severity of these fatal crashes by approximately 11%.
Automatic emergency braking, which applies a vehicle's brakes automatically when the driver fails to respond to a stopped vehicle in front of them, could potentially prevent 77,000 light van crashes annually. While most new passenger vehicles today come equipped with this feature as a result of industry-wide agreements, it is much less common in light vans, as revealed by the IIHS.
Several safety features recommended by the IIHS, including forward collision warning, automatic braking, blind spot warning, and speed limiting controls, are available on Ford and Mercedes vans. However, representatives from these automakers did not disclose the percentage of vans sold with optional safety features.
Amazon has already implemented technology that tracks and monitors unsafe driving behaviors, resulting in a significant reduction in collision rates among their delivery drivers. The number of unsafe driving incidents declined by nearly 40%, and reckless driving behaviors saw a 62% reduction from 2022 to 2023.
In addition to pedestrian safety, other technologies can curb dangerous driving habits like speeding. Speed limiting technologies, which could prevent 37% of fatal crashes involving delivery vans, would benefit not only drivers but also other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists.
The IIHS research also highlights that pedestrians accounted for more than 60% of cases where another vehicle occupant or a pedestrian or cyclist was killed or injured, whereas the van driver suffered in the remaining crashes.
Automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, employing cameras and sensors to detect a person in front of the vehicle and triggering the brakes automatically, could avoid 1,200 light van crashes involving pedestrians annually.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
