The Automotive Blog

Recently Glasgow City Council were fined £20,000 following the death of a pensioner after he was struck by a reversing refuse vehicle in the city centre.

Malcolm McCulloch, 71, a retired dock worker from Glasgow, was walking across Holm Street, Glasgow, when he was struck by the reversing lorry on 10 August 2012. He suffered severe chest and pelvic injuries and later died in hospital.

The incident was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and a prosecution brought against the council for serious safety failings.

An inspection of the vehicle by HSE mechanical specialists found no defects, and its warning beacon and siren were working correctly. However, there was a blind spot, around 2.2 metres wide, that was not covered by the CCTV camera or wing mirrors. Accordingly neither the driver nor the labourer would have seen Mr McCulloch stepping into the path of the reversing lorry. A reversing assistant should have been used to guide the driver while reversing and to prevent pedestrians such as Mr McCulloch from being able to cross the road as the lorry reversed.

aide automotive offer a Radar Sensor System. BackStop, The Automatic Truck & Trailer Braking System automatically applies the brakes when an object such as a person is in close proximity to the rear of the vehicle. This is achieved by measuring the phase shift, BackStop Radar can accurately map and detect people or objects behind the vehicle. BackStop “Automatic Truck & Trailer Braking System” takes away the chance of human error as in the above incident.

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Refuse Collection Vehicle Reversing System

BackStop Trailer & Truck Reversing System is a modern hi tech reversing aide for commercial rigid trucks and trailers.

The BackStop system is an attractive product for transport managers to improve health & safety standards.

Reversing is often the cause of vehicle damage or human injury. Fines have been issued to transport operators for employee injury and high costs in repairs for simple low speed reversing incidents. One incident in 2011 when an employee received crush injuries cost the UK transport operator a total of £15,000 in fines and costs.

For RCV’s aide automotive offer a Radar Sensor system. BackStop The Refuse Vehicle Reversing System automatically applies the brakes when an object such as a person or obstacle is in close proximity to the rear of the vehicle. This is achieved by measuring the phase shift, BackStop Radar can accurately map and detect people or objects behind the vehicle.

The RCV Reversing system only detects a target which is moving towards the sensor, so static parts of the vehicle like bin lifts or parts of bodywork are ignored, even though they may be in front of the sensor. This makes it ideal for Refuse Collection Vehicles or heavy plant with just a single sensor mounted centrally.

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Refuse Collection Vehicle Reversing System