Transport Canberra has linked up with the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) to urge drivers to consider two key life-saving vehicle safety technologies when buying a new car.
The technologies are autonomous emergency braking and lane support systems.
Acting Deputy Director-General of Transport Canberra and Business Services, Ben McHugh said the push for vehicle safety technologies was part of ANCAP’s Re-write the ending campaign which encouraged drivers to upgrade to safer vehicles.
“Autonomous emergency braking and lane support systems are lifesaving technologies helping save the lives of Canberra drivers and reduce the possibility of crashes in the ACT,” Mr McHugh said
“Autonomous emergency braking uses cameras and sensors to view the road ahead and apply the brakes when required to avoid collisions,” he said.
“Research has found that autonomous emergency braking can reduce the risk of rear-end crashes by up to 57 per cent and has been attributed to a 27 per cent reduction in fatal crashes.”
Mr McHugh said lane support systems used cameras and sensors to recognise lane markings and could actively steer or apply the brakes to prevent a car from leaving a lane unintentionally.
“The use of lane support systems can reduce head-on and single-vehicle crashes by 30 per cent,” the A/g Deputy Director-General said.
Chief Executive of ANCAP, Carla Hoorweg said 71 per cent of all new vehicles sold in Australia were fitted with some form of autonomous emergency braking as standard but with the average person driving a vehicle that was 10 years old, it was estimated that only seven per cent of light passenger vehicles in Australia were fitted with the technology.
