Truck warning tried

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 21

Truck warning tried

After five serious accidents on the Auckland southern motorway in which slowmoving trucks were struck from behind, an experiment was successfully conducted to see if a symbol on the rear of a slowmoving truck would attract drivers’ attention and make them aproach more carefully, Mr A, J. Francis, a traffic engineer with the Ministry of Transport, told the National Reading Symposium in Christchurch. The symbol used was a fluorescent red triangle, 16in long on each side,

with a fluorescent orange border and an amber flashing light at each comer. The experiment was carried out on a divided four-lane road with the symbol mounted on the rear of a canopied truck. It was found that drivers changed lanes at a greater distance from the truck when the triangle was used, and that they approached it more slowly, Mr Francis said. It was suggested the symbol could be used when trucks were travelling at less than 20 m.pJi. on the open road. In each of the five Auckland accidents the trucks involved were climbing a grade when they were hit from behind. A study of the accidents suggested the drivers had over-estimated the truck’s speed when

they approached from behind. It seemed they might then have looked in their rear-vision mirrors before changing lanes, then glanced back to find the truck was moving much more slowly than they had thought, and that they were too close to avoid a collision.