Truck safety advocates call for automatic braking systems

Truck safety advocates are pushing for mandatory automatic braking systems they say could prevent deadly highway pileups.

“Many hundreds of lives could be saved each year if trucks are equipped with automatic braking systems,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.

The Center for Auto Safety, along with several other traffic safety advocates, are petitioning the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to require such collision avoidance technology be installed in all large trucks and buses. 

{mosads}Collision avoidance technology would warn truck drivers to slow down in heavy traffic and apply the brakes if they don’t, safety advocates said Thursday.

According to the NHTSA, more than 4,000 people are killed each year in truck crashes. These automatic braking systems could prevent more than 2,500 of those crashes. 

The agency does not currently require trucks to install such collision avoidance technology, the safety advocates point out.

Safety advocates are calling on the NHTSA to require automatic braking systems in all new trucks and buses, much in the same way they require airbags and seat belts.

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Truck Safety Coalition and Road Safe America are joining the petition.