Tape Of Awful Crash Showcases New Tech
As Hazel Sanchez of CBS station WCBS-TV in New York reports, a camera mounted inside a passenger bus was rolling as the driver of an 18-wheeler lost control, and the vehicle veered into the express lane on the far left side of the road.
In an instant, an Audi sports car smashed into the tractor-trailer, and a bus hit the car.
When the chaos settled, the mangled Audi was crushed under the truck and against the concrete median.
Miraculously, the driver survived, and was reported to be alert and moving his limbs when he was taken to a hospital. He was listed in stable condition. Eight people were hurt on the bus.
The view from the bus was captured by an event recorder called DriveCam. The camera records both the driver and the driver's view when sensors detect erratic driving behavior.
"You are driving," explains Bill Schoolman of Classic Transportation, whose bus was involved in the incident, "and if you alter the "G" forces by a certain amount, by swerving the wheel or jamming on the brakes, DriveCam creates an event."
Classic says the camera shows its driver did nothing wrong in this instance.
The tractor-trailer's driver was cited for, among other things, bald tires and driving a truck 16,000 pounds overweight.
DriveCam CEO Bruce Moeller told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm Friday this shows how useful his company's product can be: "Clearly the truck lost control of his vehicle and came from the far right lane over to the left lane, in the high occupancy vehicle lane, and cut off our bus, and clearly, our bus driver had under two seconds to respond to that. It was almost like a bullet coming out of nowhere. And it's very fortunate that no one was killed and the injuries were limited.
"But I can't imagine trying to reconstruct what happened from just eyewitnesses or from memory with almost no time at all to react. Thank God they had this video to see what actually happened.""If I were an insurance company, I don't think I'd have any vehicle out there without this on it, because there are millions of dollars at stake here in accident reconstruction and litigation costs, and to try to decide who is at fault and, more importantly than all of that, it's to avoid the next the first place.
"That isn't the first time, anytime an accident happens that the behavior, the risky driving behavior would happen. If everyone had these and were being coached and staying in the moment in their driving, those accidents can be cut down in all of our experiences by at least 30 percent and up to 90 percent."
Moeller says it's feasible to mount DriveCams in passenger vehicles, not just in commercial ones: "The camera itself and the software would sell for about $1200. But we've recently introduced a new program where we're targeting teens as well as commercial drivers, and just everyday people who want to have the truth when something does happen. And we charge $60 a month for everything. For as long as you want to keep it on and it will keep your child or your husband or your wife safe and keep them focused in the moment and avoid the things we just saw in this video."
Storm noted that Drive Cam not only shows what the drivers are looking at, but the drivers themselves, and Moeller said, "The view of the driver is what allows us to change their behavior. If we're looking at what the driver is looking at, we see the same things and hear the same things the driver is involved with, then we can tell if the driver has a tendency to follow too closely, or not leave an out, or get into a jam, or any other behavior that's going to result in an accident.
"We consider those all accidents waiting to happen, and on American roads every year, there's 44,000 fatalities, and we can cut that number way down.
"When you're behind the wheel, you're really driving a potential weapon of mass destruction and we can save you from yourself and from others by virtue of keeping you in the moment and keeping you focused on your driving behavior."