STUTTGART, Germany — Accident-free roads, or nearly so, are a real possibility if technological safety solutions are broadly accepted, according to Dr. Eckhard Cordes, member of the Board of Management of DaimlerChrysler AG with responsibility for the Commercial Vehicle Division, including Freightliner.

Speaking recently at a day-long press conference at world headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, he said his own firm’s engineers have been actively pursuing this goal for the last four years.

“Innovative technology is capable of dramatically reducing the number of road traffic fatalities in the coming 10 to 20 years,” Cordes said during the company’s annual Innovation Symposium. “DaimlerChrysler proceeds from the assumption that 90 percent of all accidents can be avoided provided the new technologies are introduced on a broad scale.

“In the case of commercial vehicles, the focus has to be on active safety systems, i.e. systems which help prevent accidents… Passive safety systems, which reduce the consequences of accidents, are important, but effective on heavy-duty commercial vehicles only to a limited extent. The primary target of DaimlerChrysler is therefore to prevent accidents rather than mitigating their consequences. It is not a question of taking the responsibility away from the vehicle driver, however. Safety systems are supposed to come into action when the human being at the wheel makes mistakes due to fatigue or inattentiveness.”

Cordes said first-generation technology already in use includes such tools as the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) and electronically controlled brakes with Brake Assist. ESP can decelerate any or all wheels on a heavy truck to help the driver cope with critical driving conditions and help prevent rollovers. It’s been available on heavy-duty Actros trucks since late 2001. In late 2002 DaimlerChrysler introduced ESP as standard equipment on Mercedes-Benz vans, and more recently on Mercedes-Benz and Setra touring coaches. A variation on this theme, MeritorWABCO’s Roll Stability Control System, is now an option on some Freightliner trucks. Bendix is about to bring a similar system to the North American market.

Brake Assist is standard equipment on European Mercedes-Benz vans, heavy-duty trucks and buses. Monitoring how the driver actuates the brake pedal, the system determines whether the situation is a critical one and cuts in if it is. Cordes said it can shorten stopping distance from a speed of 100 km/h by up to 10 meters, or about two car lengths.

The next generation of safety technology will be capable, Cordes said, of “grasping” and “understanding” the traffic situation. Using cameras and radar, not unlike the existing Eaton VORAD system, DaimlerChrysler truck engineers are developing the “Telligent emergency braking system”, planned for incorporation in production vehicles in the spring of 2006. It will be able to launch an emergency braking maneuver on its own as radar sensors measure the truck’s distance from moving or immobile obstacles. The driver is first warned acoustically, and if he doesn’t react, the system initiates emergency braking without his involvement.

Perhaps more interesting is identification of the road surface condition, i.e. whether it’s covered with black ice or snow, and whether it’s wet or dry. Obviously, it has an effect on stopping distances, so DaimlerChrysler engineers are intensively engaged in developing friction recognition, Cordes said.

In an interview with Today’s Trucking following his presentation, the DaimlerChrysler truck chief acknowledged that driver training must also play a part if such ambitious accident-reduction goals are to be reached. “The corporation has been offering its customers courses for drivers for years,” he said.