Safety gizmo test

According to the findings of development engineers at Mercedes-Benz following a fleet test conducted with a total of 1,000 Mercedes-Benz Actros semis in 2005/2006, half of the serious truck accidents in Europe could be prevented.

For the purposes of the trial, half of the trucks were equipped with the Lane Assistant, proximity control and stability control assistance systems. Mercedes Benz say the number of accidents for the vehicles fitted with the safety package was shown to be halved compared to the 500 semis with a conventional specification; furthermore, where an accident did occur, the cost of the damage was 90% lower.

The results were derived based on an observation period of twelve months and a total distance travelled of 106 million kilometres.

Active Brake Assist system activates in the event of an imminent collision and if the driver fails to react despite multiple warnings, this system will automatically initiate a full application of the brakes.

While Active Brake Assist is not always able to avoid accidents, its application of full braking power is always able to reduce the impact speed and therefore considerably mitigate the consequences of the collision. The system has so far clocked up around 350 million kilometres in customer vehicles.

Some motor vehicle insurers, in Europe, such as Allianz, Daimler Financial Services, Kravag and Zürich Versicherung, offer premium discounts for trucks fitted with the corresponding safety features.