Onboard Safety Systems Effectiveness Evaluation Final Report

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to conduct a retrospective effectiveness evaluation study on three commonly deployed onboard safety system (OBSS) types using previous data acquired directly from participating motor carriers. These OBSS technologies included lane departure warning (LDW), roll stability control (RSC), and forward collision warning (FCW) systems. The current study assessed the effectiveness of these three different OBSS types installed on Class 7 and 8 trucks as they operated in their normal revenue-producing routes. Although the crash data were acquired from 14 carriers representing small, medium, and large carriers hauling a variety of commodities (including a total of 88,112 carrier crash records—United States Department of Transportation-reportable accidents as well as minor incidents—and 151,624 truck-years of operation that represented 13 billion miles traveled), the dataset in the current study was skewed toward larger, for-hire carriers and may not fully represent the overall U.S. trucking population. The benefit-cost analyses clearly showed the estimated benefits of LDW and RSC systems deployed at participating fleets outweighed the estimated costs. The analysis of the fleet crash data using the same methodology did not show a statistically significant difference in FCW-related crash occurrence rates between vehicles with or without an FCW system installed. Retrospectively, this result is primarily attributed to the lack of sufficient data (in terms of number of trucks with a deployed FCW system in the dataset) to be able to detect safety benefits with statistical significance at the observed level. Focus groups were also conducted with drivers and safety managers who had experience with LDW, RSC, or FCW systems. Drivers’ and safety managers’ opinions and perceptions of each OBSS type were generally very positive.