Thousands of serious injuries involving vehicle accidents in and around the workplace take place every year, many taking place during deliveries. The majority of delivery collisions are the result of vehicle blind spots that impair the driver’s ability to safely back up or change lanes. While the side mirrors on delivery vehicles are larger than standard car and SUV mirrors, they do not allow the driver to see behind the vehicle for a large distance.

“Blind spots” on a food delivery vehicle are actually “blind areas.” A small car passing on the right could seem to appear out of nowhere. A motorcycle or child riding a bicycle can be out of view as far as 25 feet away. A parked car or side of a building can be much closer than they appear in a rear view mirror. These blind areas are a needless—and preventable—accident waiting to happen.

While rear-mounted cameras are a useful measure to help avoid accidents, they are simply not enough to alert drivers operating in urban areas, multiple stop or highway conditions. Drivers need audible, visual and distance-to-hazard alerts that provide a side, rear and overhead obstacle detection network.

The foundation of Transportation Safety Technologies (TST) is built on developing products that save lives, prevent injuries and reduce operating costs by enhancing vehicle control. Chief among our products for specialty, commercial and emergency vehicles is the Eagle Eye™ obstacle detection system.

This cutting-edge technology monitors side and rear “blind areas” or “no zones” for nearby objects and sees what the human eye often cannot. With Eagle Eye, as many as seven weather resistant sensors are strategically mounted around the food delivery vehicle and a single driver alert module (DAM) is installed inside the cab of the truck.

This technology is the ideal safety tool for delivery or service vehicles operating in noisy and crowded urban areas, routes that include multiple stops or on highways. The system provides drivers obstacle location and precise distance information to identify hazards in blind spots during lane changes, backing or other maneuvers. Easy-to-use, affordable and reliable, Eagle Eye helps decrease accident, insurance and claims-related costs.

Eagle Eye enables food delivery drivers to more safely deliver in uncontrolled environments, make right turns onto narrow streets and drive in crowded traffic. The technology is proven to decrease the number of driver accidents by 75%, as well as reducing the number of pick-ups, frustrated customers, vehicle damages and insurance costs.

The dash-mounted digital display visually and audibly alerts drivers to potential contact beginning at 8 to 10 feet away from the vehicle and improves overall driver hazard awareness. The DAM digitally displays the distance in feet and tenths of feet. The sensor’s zone lamps on the DAM flash yellow if an object is greater than five feet from the sensor and red for less than 5 feet from it. The system can also be programmed to emit audible “Geiger counter-like” tones that begin at 10 feet away and then change in intensity as the vehicle approaches to within 5 feet of the hazard.

Some of the primary features and benefits of Eagle Eye to owner operators include the following:

• Saving money. Eagle Eye saves vehicle and property damage costs, reduces insurance costs and ensures high productivity and on-time deliveries. It helps keep customers happy.
• Versatility. Eagle Eye works when you are driving fast or slow, backwards or forwards. As many as seven sensors can be placed anywhere on the vehicle, cab or trailer—wherever the driver needs an extra “set of eyes.”
• Weather-resistance. In rain, fog, snow and other inclement weather, drivers need all the help they can get. High-end obstacle detection systems feature patented heated sensors that are SAE Certified and are rigorously tested by OEMs in extreme conditions.
• Easy installation and use. Eagle Eye is easy to install aftermarket—it is a “plug-‘n-play” product. It can be installed by a technician with little training in less than 2 hours (and less than 1 hour for many configurations). Users can be trained on how to perform the installation on their own, or TST can handle installation. The system requires no regular maintenance costs.
• Custom configuration. The system is highly customizable for any application.
• Smart. Some of the more robust obstacle detection technologies can be programmed to sound alerts only in specific situations.

One Company’s Success Story
SYSCO Food Services of Southeast Florida saved nearly $200,000 in cost avoidance during the first year of Eagle Eye fleet-wide deployment.

The primary concern of the leading food delivery company was to reduce accidents that occurred while drivers were backing during customer deliveries. Initially, SYSCO evaluated several potential solutions for accident reduction, including the placement of safety cones, camera systems and the Eagle Eye obstacle detection system.

Backing accidents have been reduced to zero since Eagle Eye was deployed on SYSCO’s entire fleet. Installing sensors on the side of the tractors and trailers has also helped the company to reduce lane changing and swing-out accidents by more than 70%.

For more information on Transportation Safety Technologies’ Eagle Eye system, visit www.tst-corp.com/eagle-eye.htm.