{"id":10977,"date":"2021-05-04T16:43:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T14:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=10977"},"modified":"2021-05-04T16:43:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T14:43:34","slug":"technology-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2021\/05\/04\/technology-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Using technology to prevent nuclear verdicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telematics software and dash cams are critical to recreating crash events and can help commercial truck fleets quickly sort out the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the unfortunate event of a truck-related fatality, it\u2019s common for the driver steering the 18-wheeler, and company he or she works for, to get the blame. It\u2019s no help to the trucking community that the photographs of the scene play up the horror element: a chunk of highway surrounded by yellow police tape and shaded red by ambulance lights, where the passenger cars are mangled messes of steel and the semi stands intact.<\/span><\/p>\n

That trucker must have fallen asleep, been on their phone or just not be very good at their job, many seeing such images reason. While those are all possible reasons for a crash, of course, the data tells a different story.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 2002 American Automobile Association (AAA) study<\/a> using 1995-1998 data assigned driver-related factors on the part of passenger car drivers 80% of the time in fatal car-truck crashes versus 27% for commercial truck drivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in 2007<\/a>, passenger cars are solely at fault 70% of the time, while truck drivers cause the crash 16% of the time. In 10% of cases, both parties failed to act in a safe and legal manner.<\/span><\/p>\n

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) used this study for a 2013 report, which received pushback from the Truck Safety Coalition<\/a>, which called the report \u201ca fallacious attack on victims of truck crashes\u201d that had \u201cno scientific basis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There has not been any major research into the topic since the advent of advanced driver-assistance systems, which include collision mitigation and lane departure and blind-spot warnings. This technology should likely help reduce all crashes, though it\u2019s unknown what impact that has on assigning fault in crashes between trucks and light vehicles. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is currently mulling<\/a> a new Large Truck Crash Causal Factors Study (LTCCS) to better understand the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

ATA President Chris Spear also noted in testimony to Congress in 2019 that truck crashes were \u201con the rise\u201d and that \u201cinitiating a new Large Truck Crash Causation Study would be an effective tool in understanding the increase in large truck-involved crashes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the findings revealed by a new LTCCS, the known data at the very least shows truckers and the fleets they drive for should not immediately be branded as the guilty party, just as any U.S. citizen should be assumed innocent until proven guilty. And in the age of telematics and dash cams, understanding what happened during a crash, and who is at fault, becomes far more clear. Specifically, the addition of sensors and cameras has allowed fleets to reconstruct crashes in real-time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visualizing the crash with data<\/span><\/h3>\n

A telematics company started in Dublin called Xtract uses accelerometer and GPS data to provide a visual representation of a crash almost instantly. The software, which operates through major telematics providers such as Geotab, helps fleets and their insurers get a sense of what happened and why, taking into account speed, vehicle positioning on the road, and even weather.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about discovering that \u201c10 seconds of truth,\u201d Xtract CEO Michael Flanagan told\u00a0FleetOwner<\/i>. Sometimes the truth is that the car perhaps cut off a truck or ran a red light, and other times it\u2019s because the truck driver made a mistake. And everything is set up in the Xtract360 app with the claims handler in mind, which ultimately helps the fleet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that moment of impact to the moment when the claims handler sees the reconstruction of the crash is about 60 seconds,\u201d Flanagan said, noting previously this may have taken three weeks, and sometimes important information, such as the driver statement, could have been written with pen and paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a presentation in Munich demoing Xtract\u2019s capabilities, Flanagan showed a case where a truck was making a turn and collided with a car.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within seconds, the insurance handler received a reconstruction that included a satellite view of the road with an icon of the truck moving south. Braking data showed the truck slowed before turning right, but not enough to avoid hitting another vehicle at a g-force of 5.6. The weather conditions indicated it was raining and at night. The algorithm immediately judged the truck 100% liable given the variables.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, the claims handler can access the license plate info of the third party and based on the g-force, point of impact, and make and model, know if the car is totaled or repairable. The modeling can also predict injuries to the driver.<\/span><\/p>\n