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Swarco leads V2I safety drive on lane closures

A quartet of companies – Swarco, construction firm Heijmans, on-board unit specialist V-Tron and chipset manufacturer NXP – are proposing a cooperative system which they say will improve safety for road workers in the Netherlands. Using Infrastructure to Vehicle (I2V) communication, it will aim to prevent collisions when drivers ignore the red cross on a motorway lane indicating that it is closed.
April 18, 2024
Michael Schuch of Swarco (left) with partners
Michael Schuch of Swarco (left) with partners

Every day, between 200 and 500 drivers in the Netherlands do this, putting themselves and road workers performing maintenance and attending breakdowns in danger.

Many vehicles in the Netherlands already have the necessary technology on board, with roadside equipment sending warning data to the vehicle, and intervening in the car's safety system as a last resort.

“The partners have proven that this cooperative, connected and automated mobility solution (CCAM) works,” says Swarco Nederland MD Freek van der Valk. “Car drivers can be actively warned of dangerous situations. In extreme cases, the technology even makes the car come to a complete stop.”

The partners are in contact with the Dutch government about the initiative. And it is a real problem: in 2021 alone, there were 40 incidents involving warning trailers and weighted crash absorbers and nearly 6,000 drivers were fined for ignoring red cross lane control signals – although the Dutch Ministry for Infrastructure and Waterways, Rijkswaterstaat, says this is the tip of the iceberg.

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