Recent Collisions: No New Surprises, No Real Changes

by | Jul 21, 2024 | News

This partial rollover of a tractor-trailer on Hwy 401 near Toronto continues to demonstrate that almost all median barriers in Ontario are insufficient for interaction with tall, heavy vehicles.

The same list of safety problems continue to make the news head-lines in Ontario, regardless of the many fatalities and personal injuries that could be avoided or minimized if needed corrections were recognized and implemented.

Heavy trucks and buses continue to be a problem. They do not interact properly with most existing barriers that are designed for interaction with smaller and lighter vehicles. In some instances the barriers increase the severity of collisions and their consequences.

In many ways the design of heavy vehicles is also a problem. Cab-over and cab-forward designs mean that there is no protection given to drivers of heavy trucks and buses. Meanwhile the heights of many truck combinations, particularly trailers do not match well with smaller lighter vehicles resulting in many fatalities and serious injuries to occupants of those smaller vehicles as they “submarine” underneath truck and trailer structures. Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) technology may reduce the incidence of such encounters but they are still a long way from being implemented in most vehicle populations.

This example of a cab-over design demonstrates that, in a collision the driver has essentially no protection because there is no crushable structure to absorb any of the collision energy in front of the driver’s seated space.

Vulnerable persons either as pedestrians, cyclists or riders of motorcycles continue to be exposed to unnecessary injury and death as little education is transferred to this vulnerable public from collisions that are investigated by police. Vulnerable persons continue to hold unrealistic beliefs about what is safe or unsafe because they have no objective information to use as the basis for their beliefs.

This example of a recent fatal cyclist collision in London, Ontario, shows that nothing of useful substance has been passed on to the cycling public as to how and why the collision occurred.

Vehicle fires continue to increase following collisions that are of a minor severity. And in many instances vehicles just simply catch fire from no collision what-so-ever. With the greater incidence of vehicle electronics and need for higher powered electrical systems fires seem to be an obvious expectation yet few are raising this alarm. As more vehicles become powered by large batteries there is little official concern being publicized about any safety drawbacks.

Unlike many vehicle fires this vehicle seemed to show a fire origin in the occupant compartment, versus the engine. No information is passed on to vulnerable vehicle owners as to the origin and cause of vehicles fires especially if, under lucky circumstances, no serious injury or death has occurred.

In many instances vehicles are striking buildings and other objects, often with little serious investigation as to their cause. While driver error is often blamed nothing seems to be done to examine how and why a driver might mistake an accelerator pedal for a brake pedal or if the complicated and proprietary software and vehicle “computers” could be contributing to these incidents.

Seemingly minor rollovers into shallow or narrow ditches can also be deadly as they have demonstrated for many years. When a vehicle occupant becomes incapacitated and their vehicle comes to rest upside down in shallow water the scenario could easily lead to a death from drowning. Focus needs to be applied to areas where such roadside water might exist and to erect some form of barrier to protect from vehicles entering those roadsides.

A seemingly innocuous collision like this might not attract attention because the water in the shallow ditch would seem of little importance. Yet shallow water and and an upside down vehicle are a dangerous combination.

In summary, there are many dangers that exist on roadways that have existed for decades without much change. Propaganda campaigns from politicians and various safety groups are too often “bags of hot air”, designed to impress with minimal safety success. Regrettably, catch phrases such as “Vision Zero” turn out to be “Zero Vision” as many official players in the game are not there to make a genuine and significant contribution to road safety.