Video: ADAC multi-car crash test asks for mandatory EBA for trucks

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By Brett Davis | July 28th, 2011

Germany’s ADAC, similar to our ANCAP crash test program and the IIHS in the US, has released a new video report of its latest crash test: the multi-car crash. The results are extremely bad, but the ADAC wants to see Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) systems fitted to trucks as a mandatory requirement. These tests prove the point.

The video report is in German, but the overall concept centres on the danger of trucks and the lack of safety features fitted to them.

The crash test involves sending a truck along at 70km/h towards the rear end of two stationary cars, a Renault Megane and a Mitsubishi Lancer wagon. The truck then collides with the rear of the cars, pushing them up into a wall.

It’s horrific to see what a truck is capable of first-hand like this. The Renault caught in between gets crushed beyond recognition, while the Lancer is literally folded in half against the wall. There would have been very little chance of any survivors in either car.

Click through until 1:20 (if you don’t understand German) to witness the potential.

A test video of the truck fitted with an Emergency Braking System is expected in the near future. We’ll keep you updated.

In the meantime, give us your thoughts on truck safety. Should Australia be applying a similar sort of attitude to increasing safety?

Kim

And Hyundai very quietly leaves out this Emergency Brake Assist feature from all its small to medium cars … a shame the public doesn’t realise what an important safety feature they’re missing out on, when all Hyundai’s competitors in the same classes have EBA …. ssshh, don’t tell the public!

Aleks

What are you talking about, they have it in all their cars. I know it must be very confusing for you, because hyundai calls it EBD and not EBA and even the hyundai gets has it on the SX model.

Also I think you missed the point of the video. The video was about trucks having this technology not cars, cars slamming into the back of other cars don’t have the same impacts as trucks.
Aleks

Even the hyundai HD Trucks have it, in-fact the only car on hyundi’s entire website that didn’t have it was the entry hyundai getz.
svd

Hyundai set up a company to manufacture Electronic Braking Systems which when optioned up have EBD (Electronic Brake Distribution) EBA (Emergency Brake Assist) TC (Traction Control) ESC (Electronic Stability Control). If they own a company that makes this stuff what incentive is there to leave it out. Youre talking through your proverbial.

Toyota Guru

Flap that, truck coming in the rear view mirror? Swing out into oncoming traffic and have a head-on with another car instead.
Grant

The fact that most Aussie truck drivers tailgate, makes this video even more alarming. On a recent return trip to Cairns from Brisbane, trucks were the worst tailgaters , even when travelling above the speed limit, they are still right up your bum. Arrogant aholes. I hope they look at this vision and moderate their actions.

http://www.vringer.com geyser

You obviously have never spent a day in a heavy vehicle.
Cars outnumber trucks 100 to 1, yet every one says truckies are bad…… total BS. There is no excuse for tailgating, but there is also no excuse for self appointed highway vigilanties who want to impose there will on others.
I hope car drivers see this vision and think twice before changing lanes in to the path of a truck that NEEDS that 50 meters for a safety buffer.
All the iPhone listening, emailing, texting, I’m too cool to pay attention junkies are the greatest hazzard on our roads today.
Cops should target earphones and hoodies too.
Bad drivers are everywhere, not just in trucks!

MOARCARHH

“Cops should target earphones and hoodies too”
and ignorant wankers like you?

http://www.hvgie.com geyser

YES
Having earphones on and your hoodie pulled up over your head, reduces your capacity to hear and limits your periferal vision. Therefore it is a dangerous practice.
Is that too dificult for you to understand or are you just trying to justify your own bad habits. Insults dont work on me buddy.

Sicherheit

Truck safety is immensely important – and while considerable attention and resources has been given to assessing and improving the safety systems of new cars (ESC becoming mandatory, NCAP/ADAC/IIHS offset crash testing), we forget there is plenty of work to be done on improving the potential risk heavy vehicles pose to other vehicles on the road!

As the ADAC crash test shows, the weight of a heavy vehicle completely deforms the structure of the considerably lighter vehicles. Instead of improving the passive safety of lighter vehicles, best gains are achieved by active crash avoidance systems in trucks. With the development of proximity/radar systems particularly by Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, active crash avoidance systems have been shown to be effective. In fact, Mercedes-Benz Active Brake Assist has been available on their trucks since 2006!

Should it become necessary for all truck manufacturers to adopt these technologies? The benefit of making these technologies mandatory is that it ensures that they aren’t considered “luxuries” or relegated to an options list due to cost reasons. But these technologies are not luxuries, but a crucial way to reduce the risk or severity of impacts between heavy vehicles and other vehicles on the road. These impacts, as the ADAC research shows, are life-threatening. Therefore, with this technology it is not a question of if – but when – these technologies become mandatory.

ADAC has taken the lead in calling for EBA to become mandatory on trucks. The technology is there, it just needs to become widely adopted. When the Germans make it mandatory, we will then eventually do so also.
garry

I think the fact that the cars are parked in front of a big concreate block is a flawed test. I can’t think of many situations where you’d have a truck driving at 70kph towards a conctreate wall with two cars parked in front of it.
In reality the cars might be stopped on the road and rear ended by a truck but instead of being squashed they would more than likely be smashed out the way. You certainly wouldn’t get the same results as you see in the video.
Very dramatic but pointless.

Damian

Well said Garry. The cars had to absorb all the energy as there was no where else for it to go.
Sicherheit

Yes, obviously the video was designed to be dramatic (worse case scenario) by introducing a concrete wall (which has little resemblance to real world situations). However, if there was a queue of stationary traffic/pileup on a highway, and a truck collided with the rear of the queue of traffic at 70kph, the first few cars ARE going to get squashed to a fairly significant degree. If a car was “smashed out of the way” because there is no obstacle in front or to the side, the sheer force would also cause significant whiplash injuries.
george

garry, the concrete block simulates being parked behind another truck.
Unfortunately this result would not be that far removed from reality, as being pushed into a large stationary truck would be similar to hitting an equivalent shaped concrete wall.

david

Very good point, but it wouldn’t be exactly the same thing. Unlike a barrier, a truck isn’t solid from the ground up. In other words, it’s possible that the car could be pushed underneath the truck in front.

A

Hmmm. Thats a small truck too. Imagine a B-Double or Semi. Your f*&ked mate.
Glen

The force in a crash depends on 3 things, the weight of the vehicles, the speed of the vehicles and the time taken to stop (the length of the collision). The best way to reduce the force is to replace bull bars with something softer. This will increase the time it takes to stop. It is crazy to have top heavy trucks with no EBA travelling at the same speed as cars that are much safer. In Germany trucks have an 80 kph limit.
joseph

Aussie trucks are a mixture of European,Jap and USA build. Euro& Jap brake systems are different than US systems. Most trailers use the US system,so there’s a big problem with compatibility between truck and trailer. We need one system,preferably Euro, and definitely compulsory ABS and ESC(my fuel tanker has these). The extra cost can just go on top of freight rates.