Protecting distracted
pedestrians isn’t as
easy as it seems
Making sound
without noise
Electric and fuel cell powered vehicles, among others, tend to run much more quietly than those
with internal combustion engines. That poses a big risk for unwitting pedestrians who step into the
road without looking around properly. Technology is coming to the rescue, in the form of a new
alerting system required by law
From July, new models of
alternatively-fuelled vehicles,
including battery-powered cars,
vans and trucks will be required
to t a so-called ‘acoustic vehicle alerting
system’ to warn vulnerable road users
of their presence. In two years’ time, all
vehicles will need to have them, according
to ECE Regulation 138.
For decades, safety authorities have
known that quiet vehicles such as batteryelectric
hybrids are so quiet that they
confound pedestrians’ expectations,
leading to a greater risk of accidents.
Research carried out in the early 1990s
by the US National Highway Transportation
Safety Board, for example, found that the
risk of a person in a car park colliding
with a quiet vehicle was seven times
higher than that posed by a vehicle using
a standard internal combustion engine,
according to Tony Bowen, LCV & projects
manager at Brigade Electronics, which has
developed a product for this application.
Despite that, the rules have been
developing for years. Since Regulation
138 was published by UNECE in 2016,
there have been four amendments. And
implementation of USA’s own regulations,
through the NHTSA, has also been pushed
back to September 2020.
As regards the cause of the delays,
Brigade’s OEM commercial manager
Richard Nevard, speculates: “It’s because
they the regulators are going through
understanding the problem, and nding
a solution that is effective but not too
prescriptive.”
LEADING THE WAY
But now that the rules are here, large eet
operators mindful of health and safety, and
transport authorities with a strong safety
agenda, such as Transport for London, will
lead the industry in adoption. Last year,
TfL published a ‘Vision Zero’ manifesto
arguing for zero deaths or serious injuries
by 2041; it also includes a 2022 target of a
70% reduction of people killed or seriously
injured compared to the 2005-09 period.
TfL has, in fact, let a tender to AECOM to
develop a speci c London bus sound for its
electric eet.
As for Brigade, its own journey towards
a product that meets those requirements
has taken more than 40 years. It was in
1976 that founder Chris Hanson-Abbott
launched the world’s rst reversing alarm
A HISTORY OF THE REVERSING ALARM
Chris Hanson-Abbott compared the sound of the rst truck reversing alarm he ever heard to ‘a
pregnant duck quacking’. On a business trip to Tokyo, Japan in 1976 the entrepreneur – then
working as a shipbroker – heard a strange noise coming from a small truck that was hugging the
kerb and backing towards him. It turns out this unit was a prototype device installed by Matsusaburo
Yamaguchi of automotive parts manufacturer and distributor Yamaguchi Electric Company, who
Hanson-Abbott tracked down north of Tokyo. As it happened, the inventor spoke English, and
Hanson-Abbott negotiated to bring back a box of 50 of the electromechanical devices to sell in
the UK. He built up the business from an advertisement in Exchange & Mart, along the way taking
a stand at the Commercial Motor show, as it was then known, in Earl’s Court, with a working
demonstration of the rear end of a car. In the end, the innovation proved popular partly because of
its timing; the Health and Safety At Work Act had only just come in, so a greater awareness of safety
was percolating through society. Hanson-Abbot won an OBE for his services to road safety in 2014.
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