Heavy vehicles operated by crews on Stage 1 of the Mickleham Road Upgrade in Melbourne’s north will be the first in Australia to benefit from new safety technology that will help more Victorians get home safer. The ground-breaking MAX-SAFE technology has been installed in some heavy vehicles being used on the congestion-busting suburban road project – with trials of the attention-grabbing audible and flashing light alert system to help reduce the likelihood associated with heavy vehicle movements during delivery of the project.
Automatic detection systems have been installed inside these heavy vehicles to alert the operator within the cabin that a vulnerable road user i.e. pedestrian, cyclist or scooter rider is in the vicinity – in particular during left-hand turning manoeuvres.
Powered by a highly advanced artificial intelligence-based smart camera, this Side View technology as part of the MAX-SAFE system is specialised in detecting specific vulnerable road users, and not other objects or obstructions.
Electronic flashing lights and alarms will initiate inside and outside the vehicle, providing the crews who are operating heavy vehicles and machinery with the advanced warning they need to assist with avoiding an unexpected collision with a vulnerable road user. It also acts to alert those outside of the vehicle.
Mickleham Road between Somerton Road and Dellamore Boulevard is used by more than 25,000 vehicles each day and is a key arterial route for Melbourne’s rapidly expanding north-west.
Students dominate pedestrian traffic in the area during school terms, with close to a thousand students attending the nearby prep to year 12 Aitken College, with the Mary Queen of Heaven Primary School and other preschool facilities adding to this local vulnerable road user population.
Without intervention, pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders could be at a heightened risk of entering a heavy vehicle operator’s blind spot. Instead, this system aims to negate this risk and maintain a form of visibility, especially during left-hand turns.
The ground-breaking system trial is the result of collaboration between Major Road Projects Victoria, construction partner BMD and SGESCO-MAX, to find new ways to reduce the likelihood of safety incidents with members of the public during construction.
Speaking about the trial, Major Road Projects Victoria Area Safety Manager, Kelvin Doyle, commented: “We have a number of schools, kindergartens and footpaths that increase our interactions with vulnerable road users through our heavy vehicle movements on Stage 1 of the Mickleham Road Upgrade.”
“Through close collaboration with our construction partner BMD, we’ve developed this trial of the MaxSafe technology – providing the critical audio and visual warnings to not only the operator within the cabin, but also those vulnerable road users outside of the heavy vehicle,” Mr Doyle said.
BMD Senior Project Engineer, Todd Stemmer, added: “Today’s trials are tomorrow’s business as usual. We’re so impressed by the technology that we’re looking to equip more of our heavy vehicles with this system to address blind spots for our crews.”
The success of the new technology will be closely monitored and evaluated, with a view to rolling this and similar systems out more broadly across more of the state’s road projects.
Pictured: Major Road Projects Victoria Area Safety Manager, Kelvin Doyle with one of the Mickleham Road Upgrade Project trucks that has been fitted with MAX-SAFE technology.