The Government company responsible for the country’s motorways and major A roads has developed a free virtual reality app to raise drivers’ awareness of their blind spots.
The app can be accessed on a smartphone attached to a simple pair of cardboard goggles so drivers can use it before they get behind the wheel.
It includes five road safety scenarios for both left and right hand drive vehicles and has been developed to stress the importance of adjusting mirrors to cater for driving in a different way when in the UK.
These include mirror adjustment, identifying vehicles in blind spots, joining a motorway from a slip road, overtaking and tailgating.
“We have set ourselves the long-term vision that no one should be harmed while travelling or working on our roads, and within that it is doing all we can to help reduce collisions involving lorries because they tend to have a greater impact when they do occur,” said commercial vehicle incident prevention team leader John Walford.
“They most commonly occur when trucks change lanes or attempt to overtake and using this technology allows us to provide a realistic environment for commercial vehicle drivers so that they can experience the impact of not using their mirrors to check blind spots.
“It’s just one of the steps we’re taking to help improve safety for this valuable group of drivers and ultimately everyone who uses our network.”
It is on show at this week’s Commercial Vehicle Show taking place at the NEC in Birmingham, with Highways England giving the free headsets to visitors.
Although developed for commercial vehicle drivers, the app could also benefit private motorists by giving them a sense of what commercial vehicle drivers experience every day.
For example, helping them to understand the location of commercial vehicle blind spots and hence reduce the potential for unnecessary accidents.
The virtual reality app is just an example of the safety initiatives that Highways England has developed as part of its commercial vehicle incident prevention programme.
The programme includes initiatives to improve the design and maintenance of commercial vehicles and initiatives to assist operators and drivers.
For example, the installation of sophisticated tyre/vehicle measurement technology designed to gauge tyre pressure, tyre tread depth, vehicle weight and axles heat at key locations.