Meritor WABCO, a provider of safety and efficiency technology for the North American commercial vehicle industry, is offering the OnGuard collision mitigation system on fire trucks built by E-ONE. The first vehicle equipped with the new safety component is now in use by a fire department in Pennsylvania.
“Every fire truck should have an OnGuard collision mitigation system because it helps protect vehicle occupants in potential collision situations,” said Carsten Duevell, senior director, Vehicle Control Systems for Meritor WABCO. “E-ONE is the first to release OnGuard on emergency vehicles, demonstrating a commitment to improving firefighters’ safety when driving to and from emergency situations.”
OnGuard, a radar-based active safety system, warns drivers of potential rear-end collisions and, when appropriate, reacts faster than the driver by applying the brakes automatically. OnGuard can be combined with Meritor WABCO’s SmartTrac™ stability control system, which is also on E-ONE vehicles, for improved stability, Duevell said.
Fatal vehicle collisions involving fire trucks increased four-fold in 2012 and are the second-most prevalent cause of death among firefighters, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Bryn Mawr Fire Department, which serves Lower Merion and Radnor townships in southeast Pennsylvania, was the first fire department to order and receive an E-ONE vehicle with OnGuard. E-ONE will use OnGuard as part of ProTech, its occupant protection system integrating the latest prevention and protection technology for firefighters.
“Although we’ve never had a major accident, we see them every day in the news, and the statistics show that most firefighter injuries occur on the way to or from a call,” said Bryn Mawr Fire Company fire chief Dan Kincade.
“The ProTech system that incorporates OnGuard certainly adds a vital layer of protection. We have collision mitigation technology in our cars, so why don’t we have it in our fire trucks?” E-ONE designs and manufactures fire rescue vehicles, with more than 28,000 vehicles in operation globally. The company added OnGuard to its newly manufactured ProTech fire trucks as an extra measure of protection after successfully deploying Meritor WABCO’s SmartTrac.
