Most pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries occur when these folks are struck by the front of a vehicle. The numbers have gone up—in 2010, 4,302 pedestrians were killed and in 2019 that number rose to 6,272 (17% of all motor vehicle fatalities); pedestrian injuries have likewise gone up from 70,000 in 2010 to 76,000 in 2019. Also significant is that most of these pedestrian collisions occur at night, with 82% of these incidents occurring in urban areas. See, Traffic Safety Facts, 2019 Data, DOT HS 813079. This crisis on our roadways is solvable. The answer has been available to vehicle manufacturers for more than a decade. Yet, until now, the importance of solving this nationwide crisis hasn’t been a high priority for manufacturers. Instead, in a hodge-podge manner, some manufacturers of over-the-road trucks and passenger vehicles have offered mechanical-electronic systems that provide—in a limited fashion—forward collision warnings (FCW) and automatic emergency braking (AEB) that may or may not reduce the risk of running-down a pedestrian. The absence of collision avoidance systems (CAS)—for trucks and passenger vehicles sold after 2012 and the inadequacy of the performance of many of the systems installed over the past 10 years dictates pursuit of product design defect case when the result is a fatality or catastrophic injury.
Existing FCW and AEB features are activated by either radar sensor detection or camera detection or both. The effectiveness of these detection systems is dependent upon the number and quality of the sensors and camera, together with the selected programming to activate FCW and AEB. For example, if not programmed correctly, vehicle sensors and cameras may not detect a pedestrian in the vehicle’s path.
