A new study featuring world-leading driver monitoring technology will be used to help reduce fatal truck crashes.
The A$6.5 million Advanced Safe Truck Concept, an Australian Government Cooperative Research Centre Project, aims to better understand the impact of fatigue and distraction.
The study was launched this week by the Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities Paul Fletcher. The partnership is headed by Canberra company Seeing Machines and includes Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) and Ron Finemore Transport Services.
Finemore trucks will be fitted with monitors which detect fatigue and distraction and alert the driver. Face and eye-tracking technology monitors the driver, while a camera captures footage of the road.
In phase one of the project truck drivers have been tested in MUARC’s Advanced Driving Simulator. Drivers are tested in a rested and a fatigued state so a better understanding of fatigue on truck safety can be achieved.
According to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2462 Australians were killed as a result of involvement in heavy vehicle crashes between 2005 and 2014, 17.5% of deaths on Australian roads.
The full project is expected to be completed at the end of 2019.