The Swedish Transport Administration has tested colliding a passenger car with a truck when both were driving at 50 kilometers per hour, with and without the crash-proof front developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology.
The test showed a 30 – 60 percent less indentation of the car compartment with the crash-proof front.
– The passenger car that we crash tested with in the crash test received much less impact in the passenger compartment, and then the chances of survival for the person sitting in the passenger car increase, says Rikard Fredriksson who is an expert at the Swedish Transport Administration and adjunct professor of vehicle safety at Chalmers.
Trucks overrepresented in fatal accidents
Only six percent of the vehicles on the roads in Sweden are trucks, but they are involved in 20 percent of the accidents.
– In Sweden, we think that maybe ten lives per year could be saved. But this would become a European standard, so then we might be talking about thousands of lives that could be saved, says Rikard Fredriksson.
As early as 2030, the Swedish Transport Administration hopes that a more crash-proof front will become standard in the EU. But until then, the concept will be refined – no visible blue box in front of the driver’s cab, that is.
– It will be a newly designed front, of course, where a box or structure like this is built in in a neat way and also streamlined, which can reduce fuel consumption. So it becomes a bit of a win-win with the environment and road safety at the same time, he says.