How does the safety manager know what the MOW driver’s behaviors are like on the road?

LILEE Systems understands that the need to protect MOW vehicle does not end after it leaves the tracks and enters the road. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports more than 6 million vehicle crashes, of which 90% are caused by human error. Common reasons are distracted driving, speeding and road rage. A safety solution is only effective if action can be taken to reduce safety risks and prevent accidents while the vehicle is on the road. The question is, how does the safety manager know what the driver’s behaviors are like on the road? LILEE’s SafeRide solution extends the SafeRail solution, provides useful insights about the driver, and is the only complete MOW protection solution available on the market.

Protect MOW vehicles on and off the tracks

How does SafeRide help? Video recordings of the drivers and road conditions are an extremely effective way to get a timely and individualized view into the driving habits of each driver, road and cabin conditions at the time a safety event is taking place. Safety events may be, triggered by sensors on the vehicle or manually by the driver with an emergency button. They may also be identified by computer vision, the most advanced technology available today. Safety event thresholds shall be customizable to allow for the major differences in different vehicle type safety-related maneuvers. Real-time alerts coupled with live look-ins (live video streaming from onboard cameras) especially enable operations managers and safety officers to provide immediate actions. Furthermore, the recorded videos of drivers, cabin and road conditions are valuable materials for driver coaching and maintenance.

SafeRide Solution Approach

SafeRide links sensor-based events (e.g. hard braking, speeding and engine trouble codes) with live video streaming of road conditions, driver behaviors and cabin activities. The SafeRide solution consists of the following:

• Live View that supports live views streamed in real time from up to 8 cameras per vehicle for remote operators to watch live feeds of drivers, passengers and road conditions
• Events and Event Videos that are captured by onboard sensors and a driver emergency button
• Video-on-Demand for operators to access, view and share specific videos to analyze past events, coach drivers and exonerate staff from false claims
• Vehicle Telematics tracking diagnostic trouble codes and vehicle location in real time
• Alerts and Notifications for operators to define high priority events that trigger SMS and email alerts for fast, effective incident resolution in real time

Figure 1 The LILEE Systems SafeRide Solution

Before employees can safely work on the track, they drive MOW vehicles from the yard to the job sites and return the MOW vehicles to the yard after they complete their workday. The SafeRide system delivers additional layers of safety for the MOW operators when the vehicles are used on roadways (off track).

The onboard system can detect when the vehicle is operating with rubber tires and switch to the “Off-Track” mode automatically and change the Cab Signal visual display unit from displaying the track map to geo-map view at the same time. Once the system operates in the “Off-Track” mode, the system will start monitoring the vehicle behavior using the data from GNSS, vehicle CAN bus and IMU to detect the following unsafe driving events:

• Speeding
• Sharp cornering
• Harsh braking
• Fast acceleration
• Excessive idling

These events will also be reported back to the same back-office monitoring system to provide complete visibility and safety assistance from the yard to job sites and back.

Additional Benefits of using SafeRide

Driver and fleet management solutions typically give insight into a few variables but do not capture full operational contexts. Operators often see indications that a potential safety breach, such as hard braking or cornering, has occurred but cannot understand conditions associated with the event. Was the driver asleep at the wheel, or did a child run out into the road? SafeRide’s event-based video monitoring platform eliminates that uncertainty. SafeRide provides video feeds of drivers, cabin and road conditions integrated with data like hard brakes, DTCs and idling. This video-based intelligence fills in missing information and is available both in real time and as stored video-based records. With video evidence of operating conditions, bus companies now have information to ensure safety, improve efficiency and mitigate risk.

Do not settle for a partial safety protection

Carriers owning a video-based safety system continue benefiting from the solution long after the initial deployment and continued coaching. The main reason is savings resulting from driver exonerations. Many carriers that have the right video-based safety solution installed have found that the cost of one litigation can be much bigger than the cost of the solution. The improved safety resulted from the solution also increases employee satisfaction and therefore differentiates the carriers from competitors.

To learn more about keeping your maintenance-of-way vehicles safe, please contact yjlee@lileesystems.com.