The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) funded this project to collect, merge, and conduct an assessment of onboard safety system surveys and resulting data sets that may benefit commercial vehicle operations safety and future research efforts. Until recently, many of these efforts have been conducted independently of each other with limited coordination of data aggregation. This synthesis provides an understanding of the relationships and factors involved in the use, selection, and impact of onboard safety technologies. Also, it may reveal future research opportunities and reduce research redundancy. The synthesis includes an analysis of over 19 survey, interview, and focus group instruments. Throughout all the surveys, concerns arose about cost and the desire for information regarding demonstrated safety impacts of onboard safety systems. The survey synthesis findings indicated a need for increased information in reference to the financial implications of any safety technology including insurance costs and crash reduction savings, as well as cost of installation, maintenance, training, and upgrades to any safety system. (Author/publisher)
Abstract