Lorry/truck drivers

Seventh edition of the Fundación MAPFRE Awards for Social Innovation

Providing solutions to real problems is the main goal of social innovators, who through their projects contribute to meeting the social needs and demands of the public.

With them in mind, we are launching the seventh edition of the Fundación MAPFRE Social Innovation Awards, with the collaboration of IE as an academic partner, broadening our scope even further. In this edition can participate projects from four major regions: Brazil, the rest of Latin America, Europe and the United States of America.

“Safety and mobility” expert meeting organized by the Croatian Automobile Club on the occasion of the European Mobility Week

On the occasion of the European Mobility Week, the Croatian Automobile Club hosted the “Safety and Mobility“ expert meeting, which was held on Tuesday, 19 September 2023.

‘Pass Wide and Slow’ When Meeting Horse Riders and other Vulnerable Road Users

The Road Safety Authority (RSA), and An Garda Síochána (AGS) have teamed up with Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) and Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) to produce a series of videos to inform motorists how to share the roads safely with horse riders.

Friday, June 2, 2023 - 10:22
In-depth accidents analysis is a unique research activity conducted by Transport Research Centre (CDV). Data from In-depth Accident Analysis provide a comprehensive view of all the factors related to a particular accident and serve to identify the characteristics leading to the crash occurrence and how they affect its consequences.
In – depth Road Accident Analysis includes following research areas:
-transport infrastructure,
-vehicle design and construction,
-human factor and psychology
-medical research.
Our activities are realized in long-term horizon and all the research is subjected to strict conditions, including personal data protection.

We conduct traffic accident research within the National Centre of Czech In-Depth Accidents Analysis (CzIDAS). One of its aims is cooperation with entities that could further use the results of research, for example road owners or administrators, vehicle designers and also researchers etc.
The CzIDAS data is used for various purposes and helps to face current road safety challenges:
- Due to its comprehensiveness, Czech in-depth crash analysis is one of the most effective tools for targeted and comprehensive decision-making on measures related to road safety and the establishment of the National Road Safety Strategy and other government documents related to road safety.
 CzIDAS is a source of unique information for targeting preventive information campaigns. The use of in-depth data allows us to influence road users using real crash scenarios with their consequences and highlights specific risky behavior.
 the database creates also a unique framework for a number of educational activities, e.g. Education on children's traffic behavior in the form of LARP, methodology for teachers of traffic education, Seniors in road traffic, e-TESTs and teaching and training methodology for the initial education of examiners and for subsequent periodic education of examiners,
 The activity contributes to the creation of safe road infrastructure (infrastructure adjustments based on the measures as a result of in-depth crash analysis).
 The project serves and has the potential to serve as a unique source of data and knowledge for further research in this area, including autonomous control systems. Data was used eg. for the development of a specific technical element of passive safety to protect the cervical spine, the development of an element of active vehicle safety to mitigate the effect of primary contact between pedestrian and vehicle, etc.).
 The data also serves fo validation of models used for accident analysis or creation of knowledge-based database for forensic experts,.
 Traffic crashes, however, result not only in physical but also the psychical health damage and serious social consequences. Every road traffic accident has the potential to be a traumatic event and may result in significant disruption to the psychological integrity of the people involved. The impact of a road traffic accident can adversely affect the quality of mental and physical health and subsequently interfere with many areas of one's social life. The contribution of the project could be seen also in psychological assistance to the traffic accident victims at the scene of the traffic accident.
Thursday, June 1, 2023 - 17:34
Every year almost 2 million crashes are human-caused partially because of distraction and sleep, resulting in a staggering $287 billion in losses for insurance companies. WingDriver solves that using AI and your smartphone. Our technology alert drivers to keep them awake and focused.
WingDriverTM is the only company implementing Computer Vision and AI on smartphones and mobile operating systems to analyze combined facial analysis, vehicle inertial data and the vehicle surroundings to accurately identify driver drowsiness, fatigue, distraction and other driver states to prevent accidents.
The WingDriverTM tech uses smartphone cameras and sensors or the in-vehicle driver monitoring camera and Android automotive unit and combined with Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) research results, for the decision making processes that will identify the driver situation and alert drivers in real-time using audio and visual messages. Additionally, our Big Mobility Data strategy will enable us to understand the correlation between driver behavior and accidents with greater precision to accurately assess driver risk.
Our solution is based on:
- WingDriverTM Software Development Kit (SDK) - To enable any mobile application company or automotive manufacturers to include these safety features in their products;
- WingDriverTM Cloud data - Enabling for a better risk assessment and consequently improved insurance products;
- WingDriverTM App and White-label apps - Our iOS and Android apps are developed in a way that enables a quick change on the visuals to fit our client needs. Facilitating proof of concept activities.

WingDriverTM delivers a data driven solution to monitor, evaluate and reward safe drivers, enabling:
- Reduce operational costs - By preventing collisions with real time alerts, drivers will drive safer, cost related to insurance and maintenance will be decreased, and fleet uptime will be increased.
- Improve driver behaviour - By collecting accurate driver behavioral data (drive assist data, vehicle assist data and telematics), WingDriver enables personalized coaching and instruction, resulting in improved driving behavior and habits.
-Tailormade for insurance - By analyzing data on factors such as sleep, distraction, and overall driving performance, insurers can accurately assess and price risk for individual drivers (usage-based insurance).
- Keep customers engaged - Cutting-edge solution that adds valuable insights into customers’ driving behavior, their performance through personalized reports and their motivation with gamification elements such as rewards and challenges.
Thursday, June 1, 2023 - 15:05
Speed limits and speeding in the vicinity of schools.

In Ireland many of our ‘Front of school’ zones tend to be busy and congested. Where school bus transport is not available for example, children often travel several kilometres to their schools from rural localities in the private family car. We also have the habit of very short and often unnecessary (less than 1km) trips by car to school; parents frequently cite traffic and speed as a reason for the car trip. In essence it’s a self-propagating habit; the more who drive, the more who feel it’s dangerous and so the drive level ensues.

Wicklow County Council are conscious and concerned regarding their school going population. We are aware of studies detailing that pedestrians have a 90% chance of surviving a car crash at 30km/h or below, but that the probability of a pedestrian being killed rises by a factor of 8 as the impact speed of the car rises from 30km/h to 50km/h. Existing speed limits in the vicinities of County Wicklow’s schools varied from 50km up to 80km per hour. Wicklow County Council were keen to address this lack of equity in shared spaces where vehicles and vulnerable road users mix on a thrice daily basis.

We felt there was no justification for drivers to travel at high speeds in the vicinity of schools. Changes were proposed to reduce speed, to reduce risk and to make the front of school environment a safer place for all. Various options were looked at, including the enforcement of fixed speed limits or the introduction of periodic speed limits in school zones which would require drivers to reduce their speed.

It was agreed that the on roads outside schools that would not be subject to a fixed speed limit of 30km/h, periodic speed limits of 30km/h should be proposed to Elected Members*, as anything that addresses the notion of reduction in speed must be considered for the most vulnerable road users.

The members of each local authority are called 'Councillor’s, or ‘Elected Members’. Councillors are directly elected in local elections, to represent their district at a local level. The number of councillors elected to each local authority depends on the population of the local authority area. In total, Wicklow have 32 Elected Members.
Thursday, May 25, 2023 - 23:24
The aim of my project is to design a portable device or app to detect fast moving objects.

Approximately 2.2 million people globally are vision impaired.

As a vision impaired person, I have difficulty seeing oncoming vehicles and other hazards, such as electric cars or e-scooters.

For these reasons, I developed VIPMOD: Vision Impaired Person's Moving Object Detector.

Vision impaired people are not the only group of people with this difficulty.

People with other access needs, such as mobility disabilities, or people who are hearing impaired, will also benefit from VIPMOD, helping them to live safer and more independent lives.
Thursday, May 25, 2023 - 23:12
Classic road safety equipment has always been passive, waiting for drivers to lose control, leave the road and suffer an accident against it. In that moment, they are necessary to contain and redirect the vehicle, as well as to reduce its severity and consequences. However, despite their generalized deployment in our roads, we still face deaths and severe injured.
PLUG&META® technology brings a new paradigm for road equipment, allowing the infrastructure to be proactive, to start talking to users and prevent accidents from happening. It also gathers road safety data and events for the road administration.
It is a digital system that can be integrated both into new or existing equipment, for example guardrails, bridge parapets, noise barriers or acoustic wall cladding for tunnels, crash cushions and others.
This worldwide innovation, patented and fully developed by Metalesa, provides active road safety to infrastructure, that is to say, the connected and smart infrastructure will have the capability to autonomous and continuously identify risks on the road (ex: ice, bad visibility, cyclist/pedestrians/animals on the road, excessive speed...) and activate in real time an adaptative LED signalling system to make drivers aware of the risk, and hence, allowing them to anticipate safer decisions. Thanks to PLUG&META® technology, key variables of risk detection, signalling and data collection can be configured from an open intuitive management platform, called PLUG&META® TRACE.
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