FMCSA to gauge value of truck roadside warning devices

WASHINGTON — After declining to let autonomous trucking companies substitute cab-mounted warning beacons for ground-based devices to alert passing motorists of a disabled truck, federal regulators plan a deeper dive into how much crash protection traditional devices actually provide.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is looking for 256 drivers to collect data for an experimental study, “Warning Devices for Stopped Commercial Motor Vehicles.” FMCSA will use the data to evaluate “whether warning devices meaningfully influence crash-relevant aspects of human performance in the presence of a parked or disabled commercial motor vehicle (PDCMV), and if so, how and to what extent,” according to a notice published Tuesday.

“Given the increasing focus on ADS (automated driving systems), questions surrounding the safety of CMV drivers when deploying warning devices, and the availability of new technology and alternative devices since these questions were last explored in the 1980s, there is a need to thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of warning devices under current regulations,” FMCSA stated in the notice.

Current FMCSA regulations have specific rules on how and where devices such as warning triangles, flares and fuses must be placed in relation to a disabled truck based on road and traffic attributes at the site of the breakdown. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also prescribes minimum performance and design specifications for warning