The youngest road users have always been the focal point of the campaign that MAN Truck & Bus launched last year.
MAN ProfiDrive Visits Primary Schools
To show them what they need to keep in mind when taking the bus, experts from road safety associations visited numerous primary schools in Bavaria together with instructors from the training provider MAN ProfiDrive in autumn 2020 – and are now continuing the campaign. Joining them on tour: an MAN Lion’s Intercity.
To show what is already technically feasible in terms of safety, Joachim Herrmann presented the MAN Lion’s Intercity and its safety systems at the event. These include, among other assistants, the turning assistant with pedestrian detection, which has an active warning function.
“Unfortunately, because of the blind spot, accidents while turning are still a regular occurrence. With our innovative systems, we are aiming to play an important role in improving road safety, especially at junctions,” stresses Heinz Kiess, Head of Product Marketing Bus at MAN Truck & Bus. To this end, a front camera and additional cameras on one or both sides of the vehicle monitor the traffic at all times, ensuring that the driver is under much less pressure in dangerous turning situations. The driver is actively alerted to any dangerous situations or impending collisions, with visual warnings from two displays installed in their field of vision and an additional, acoustic warning signal.
The modern driving and turning assistant systems also increase safety, as they reliably detect pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists in the driver’s blind spot, and actively draw the driver’s attention to the hazardous situation. “Improving safety for all road users is something we think about all the time, and that drives us forwards. That is why we are investing all our experience and expertise – not least in the development of innovative assistance systems,” Kiess concludes.
And for this reason, MAN Truck & Bus has also decided to continue the extremely successful road safety campaign launched in autumn of last year.
At the training sessions, the children learn about and practice waiting for the bus, what to do when the bus arrives at the stop, what to remember when getting on and off, how to behave on the bus, and how to sit properly when they’ve got their school bags with them.
“We also use a triangular orange tarpaulin to demonstrate to the children just how big the blind spot is for a bus driver. It is important that the pupils themselves realise and experience how limited visibility is for the driver,” says Manfred Raubold, Managing Director of Landesverkehrswacht Bayern (Bavarian Road Safety Organisation). The children are also shown how heavy a bus tyre is and what can happen during emergency braking.
A total of 300 children from Year One to Year Three were given training in 2020. “This campaign is something special – not just for the children, but for MAN as well. It’s amazing how attentive they are in following what we tell and show them, and how they put their new knowledge into practice straight away – even the kids in Year One. We firmly believe that this will enable us to play an important role in ensuring the safety of our children,” says Kiess.
