Naturalistic driving study on the impact of an aftermarket blind spot monitoring system on the driver’s behaviour of heavy goods vehicles and buses on reducing conflicts with pedestrians and cyclists

The risk being severely or fatally injured in crashes with heavy goods vehicle and buses is much higher compared to other vehicles. Especially vulnerable road users such as pedestrian and cyclists are at high risk. In the European Union 4600 pedestrian and more than 2000 cyclists were killed in 2019. 18% of the fatalities were counted in crashes with heavy goods vehicles or buses. Blind spot situations and driver inattention or distraction are causing and contributing crash factors. Driver assistance systems are intended to support drivers and might have a positive effect on the crash avoidance. The objective of the study is the analysis of the change of driver behaviour in heavy goods vehicles and buses due to a aftermarket blind spot monitoring system. In a naturalistic driving study 15 heavy goods vehicles and five buses were equipped with a blind spot monitoring system and data were collected over a period of two years. The results revealed that the system would reduce the number of warnings with vulnerable road users by one third for heavy goods vehicles and 10% for buses. Up to 200 lives annually could potentially be saved with the analysed system, on the assumption that the collision warnings correlate directly with crashes.