How’s My Driving? - Safe Driving Blog Tips

Did you know that 1 in every 10 vehicles on British motorways is a heavy goods vehicle (HGV)? And yet they are involved in over half of all fatal accidents! Braking for these heavy vehicles is a major problem, with up to 11 tonnes of weight in the back, you can imagine how hard it must be to stop safely!

This year Cambridge University has got together with a number of companies, including the car maker Volvo, to work on a new braking system that is aiming to chop a massive fifth off the stopping distance of a HGV. Modern ABS in lorries are great for stopping but trying to stop and steer is virtually impossible, so when lorries have to break suddenly it can often cause issues with out of control wheels.

Whereas, these new brakes which are being developed allows the driver to steer and brake. This new design will reduce the risk of the skidding and out of control vehicles. Each wheel will be controlled by a computer which will calculate exactly how slippery the road is, in comparison to how fast the vehicle is going, making sure that the right amount of pressure is applied.

It is still in prototype design, but with any luck this new project will be out on the roads in the next few years. It’s great to see that people are addressing road safety, and specifically HGV safety as an area needing development.