It’s not necessarily the news a distributor wants the world to see, but a spectacular crash in Auckland on Sunday morning has proven the active and passive safety features designed into the Volvo FM series truck.
Volvo Truck and Bus national sales manager Clive Jones says from observing pictures in the media himself that its good to see the trucks safety features did their job.
According to Jones the FM series has a very strong galvanised steel intrusion beam structure, as well as a driver’s airbag, and a seat mounted seat-belt pretensioner system, which will fire milliseconds before the airbag deploys, to recoil the driver back into the seat and allow the airbag to do its job properly without causing injuries.
Jones says the dashboard panels and steering wheel column will also deform to reduce any harm to the driver in the event of a heavy impact such as that which occurred.
“I haven’t seen the truck close up, only pictures of it in the media, but the ripple through the cab is enough to show this was an enormous impact, the cab has therefore done the job of absorbing the impact allowing the driver to escape serious injury,” says Jones.
“Volvo trucks says that part of it’s safety design mandate is to ensure that in such an impact the doors of the vehicle will be able to open, and from what I’ve seen in this case they certainly were able to be opened.
According to The New Zealand Herald, Regal Haulage driver Brendon Greig says “airbags played a big part” in how he escaped without serious injuries when his Volvo truck and trailer combination smashed through a motorway barrier and plunged down a bank onto another section of motorway in Central Auckland.
Regal Haulage driver manager Alan Pye told the Herald that Greig had been able to climb out of the cab himself after the crash, but had been kept in hospital overnight for observation and an MRI scan.
“We’re just thankful that he’s relatively unscathed, and we’re more thankful that nobody else was injured – thats a big thing for us,” he says.
Regal Haulage director Brett McHardie told the Herald that he also credited the Volvo truck’s safety features for the driver’s escape.
