Volvo Trucks’ Accident Research Team celebrates 40th anniversary

This year Volvo Trucks’ Accident Research Team (ART) is celebrating forty years of research into safety issues. To a large extent, the work of the Accident Research Team laid the foundations for Volvo Trucks’ highly-respected reputation for safety.

“Volvo Trucks is a world leader in the area of safety. The systematic and professional work carried out by the Accident Research Team since its establishment forty years ago has made a strong contribution to our achieving and retaining this leading position,” says Volvo Trucks’ President and CEO Staffan Jufors.

The Accident Research Team was founded in 1969 by Volvo Trucks in order to investigate and gain knowledge about truck accidents which resulted in physical injury. The team’s work has continued unabated ever since. In the beginning, the group was on call all year round, driving out to accident sites in the Gothenburg area of Sweden to investigate and document the facts – often discovering more than the official investigation. Today, however, the ART has shifted its focus from studying every accident to concentrating on investigating new types of accidents.

Over the years thousands of investigations have led to the formation of a unique information base. At the same time, co-operation with other countries and public authorities has resulted in the high-level exchange of scientific information, leading Volvo’s research to contribute to the safety of commercial vehicles all over the world.

The work of the ART is intended to improve both active and passive safety for Volvo trucks. Research into passive safety is designed to minimise the consequences of any accident. Active safety means finding the answers to questions about what causes an accident and how accidents can be avoided. Since the 1970’s the team has emphasised the importance of the driver’s environment in the area of active safety and active safety remains a key concept in current research.

“We’ve come a long way in the area of passive safety in trucks,” says Anna Wrige, Manager of the Accident Research Team. “However, our focus is now on active safety and on accident prevention. This is because we know, not least, that the human factor is the cause of many accidents,”

She concludes, “Now, as in the past, the team has a direct influence on the development of new products and systems. Every new safety solution Volvo Trucks presents is as a result of our work.”