image: The division of freight, transit, and heavy vehicle safety at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute solves complex and meaningful heavy-vehicle problems through deployment, testing, analysis, education, and outreach.
Credit: Photo by Jacob Levin for Virginia Tech.
Safety is not only for truck drivers, but also the drivers around them.
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute recently received nearly $1 million in two grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to develop and enhance tractor-trailer educational programs.
“These two grants will allow us to continue transforming our research into practice,” said Rich Hanowski, director of the institute's division of freight, transit, and heavy vehicle safety. “The outreach initiatives will directly leave an impact on drivers and are supporting our efforts to save lives.”
Technology education for truck drivers
Rebecca Hammond and her team were awarded $490,000 to support the development of a series of interdisciplinary training materials to educate truck drivers on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
According to Hammond, systems such as adaptive cruise control, blind spot warning, automatic emergency braking, and more are becoming increasingly popular on cars and trucks and have the potential to mitigate crashes and save lives. However, there has been a lack of education and research around the use of these technologies in tractor-trailers.
“Our goal is to educate both the truck driver and the fleet management on the benefits of these technologies that are making their way into heavy vehicles,” said Hammond, group leader of heavy vehicle programs and initiatives at the institute. “There are some drivers who have been on the road for 30 to 40 years who may be apprehensive to use these technologies. We are hoping to show them ADAS technologies can make their drives safer and easier.”
The two-year project aims to
- Develop ADAS training videos for drivers
- Create a website to house the videos and other training materials
- Create an immersive virtual reality training for drivers who have not experienced ADAS technologies
- Implement and disseminate the trainings in-person at various trucking industry events and fleet safety meetings
While minimal research is available, one study conducted by the institute in 2017 noted the potential for technologies such as automatic emergency braking and lane departure warning, among other technologies, could help avoid 500 fatalities annually.
Sharing the Road with Large Trucks program
In a separate grant, $455,000 was awarded to support the nationwide expansion of the institute's safer driving outreach program, Sharing the Road with Large Trucks. The program, which gives participants a first-hand experience of a semi-truck's blind spots from the driver’s perspective, currently operates primarily in the mid-Atlantic region.
“Drivers across the country also are in need of a program like this,” said Matt Camden, group leader of the institute's research to practice and outreach group. “We are excited for the opportunity to expand our program and engage with drivers in new areas and teach them how to safely drive around semi-trucks.”
The grant will allow the team to visit 90 schools in previously unvisited regions over the next two year and to attend additional community events and conferences. The grant also will support translating the program’s educational materials into Spanish, allowing the important safety-related information to reach an audience that may not speak or read English fluently.
Since its 2017 inception, Sharing the Road with Large Trucks has worked with over 45,000 students across 353 school visits and has engaged with over 8,200 community members during 47 public events.