Truck safety technologies like lane sensors and proximity control are effective only if the driver responds to them accordingly. Stan Bezuidenhout believes more money needs to be spent on driver research and training.

If there's one professional out there who eats and sleeps vehicle accidents, it's a forensic accident reconstructionist, a man like Stan Bezuidenhout of IBF Investigations. FleetWatch asks him just one question - "If so much new truck safety technology is being introduced, why are there still so many truck and bus accidents?"

He replies thus:
"Never mind seat-belts, skid control, ABS and a host of other safety technologies, what is the single most important safety item in a commercial vehicle that has remained unchanged since the introduction of the diesel engine? You guessed it - the driver. 

"Now consider this proposition - take all the money that has been spent on hi-tech safety devices, their development and marketing, and spend it on driver training. Why, you may ask? Because the driver is the only 'system' in existence that can make an intelligent and safe decision regarding a potential threat or dangerous environment before that threat or environment is even known.

"As well designed as this 'safety system' might be, it has some serious flaws. These flaws are collectively described as the 'human factor'. When we do a special accident reconstruction where the human factor becomes an issue, we prefer to address every single possible parameter that can be considered .We pull the system apart and look inside it, because we have to. As a commercial vehicle operator would know, they are exposed to extreme working hours, varying levels of stimulation, physical discomfort, fatigue and surprise. How good is the human being at sensing, detecting, observing, analysing, processing and preventing highway threats?

"Considering all the proof we have of the intrinsic fallibility of the human element, how is it possible that we do not realise that this one factor - the human element - is by far the most complex, most contributory and definitely the least explored element of accident statistics? Only extensive driver research, large investments in training and human conditioning can result in tangible reductions in accident statistics. Like fighter pilots, martial artists, gymnasts and racing drivers, commercial vehicle operators can be conditioned to become almost super-humanly aware, capable, reactive and pro-active."

How many drivers are made aware of their ability to react and respond appropriately to a threatening driving situation, asks Stan Bezuidenhout. This driver definitely overestimated his ability to take evasive action.

Driver Fatigue Sound asleep! This photograph (courtesy of Gary Ronald) was taken near Van Reenen’s Pass in mid-August and is yet another example of how ignored the driver fatigue phenomenon really is. The truck, carrying a 20-ton load of grain, strayed into the emergency lane and collided with a stationary container truck. It is alleged that the driver fell asleep! Two people were seriously injured and the road had to be closed for four hours. When will the penny drop? Loss of sleep results in severe retardation of a driver’s response mechanisms.