Legislature promotes automated safety vehicles

They would protect road work crews

It sounds like an oxymoron, but the state Legislature is taking action to help reduce the risk in one of the more dangerous jobs in road maintenance: driving the safety truck.

The trucks are fitted with a warning arrow and a crash barrier on the rear. They are driven slowly to provide protection behind crews cutting grass and painting lines. About once a month, one of these truck drivers is injured when a motorist strikes the vehicle.

To address that situation and others, the state House passed a bill last week to allow autonomous versions of the vehicle, known as a truck-mounted attenuator, in PennDOT and turnpike maintenance zones. The Senate is considering a similar bill to allow the driverless vehicles, which have been developed by a Lehigh County firm and currently are involved in pilot projects in England and Colorado.

“The primary application is in work-zone safety,” said Roger Cohen, senior adviser to PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards. “In this instance, you can use an autonomous vehicle and not have to expose the driver to that potential injury. We want this legislation to move.”

PennDOT has 62 attenuators mounted on trucks and another

308 on trailers. The legislation also would allow other autonomous vehicles in work zones as they become available.

As a member of the House Transportation Committee, state Rep. Greg Rothman, RCumberland County, said he wrote the legislation as part of the committee’s review of potential ways state laws could be changed in limited ways to take advantage of vehicle automation. He said it was “a happy marriage” that a PennDOT task force also was reviewing the use of automated vehicles to improve safety for work crews.

The system works like this: A regular attenuator truck is fitted with a computerized system that allows it to be controlled by the work crew in a vehicle immediately ahead of it at a speed of 5 to 7 mph. The Automated Impact Protection Vehicle still is available to take any impact from a crash and protect the work crew, but there is no driver in the safety vehicle to risk injury.

The truck and control system cost $350,000, which includes technical support and training.

“It’s really a good entry point for states to get involved in autonomous vehicles,” said Fred Bergstresser, who oversees the marketing of the vehicle for Royal Truck & Equipment in Coopersburg.

“It’s in a very controlled environment and at a very low speed. That’s easily accepted by people concerned aboutautonomous vehicles.”

Mr. Bergstresser said the company has worked with the military over the past two years to develop the technology. It’s valuable to the military to help move supply conveys without using drivers in every vehicle, he said.

Colorado officials heard about the system while it was under development and approached Royal about acquiring one last summer, said Amy Ford, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. That state, which also has had problems with injuries to drivers of safety trucks, is going through its final tests on the Royal vehicle and plans to put it in service this spring.

“We’ve heard a lot of concern about people losing jobs to automated vehicles,” Ms. Ford said. “Our response to that is if we could replace the poor schmuck whose job is driving that vehicle whose sole purpose is to get hit, we would gladly find other work for him. Injury really is a legitimate issue.”

Colorado has formed a coalition with 12 other states to create a fund of nearly $500,000 to investigate other safety benefits from autonomous vehicles in construction and maintenance projects, Ms. Ford said.

Mr. Bergstresser said Royal is ready to ramp up manufacturing of more Automated Impact Protection Vehicles if demand increases.