New market analysis underscores the importance of advanced safety systems.

According to an analysis by UK-based What Car? Vans, the vast majority of work trucks on the road today are lacking key safety technologies that would make a dramatic difference to the safety of public roads, were they installed.

What Car? Vans reports that while many top-of-the range work trucks come fitted with multiple safety features as standard, lower specification models typically do without the potentially life-saving technologies.

The European Commission has proposed to make eight safety technologies mandatory across new cars and vans by 2022. These include driver drowsiness and distraction alerts, intelligent speed assistance, reversing cameras or sensors, data recorder in case of an accident, lane-keep assistance, advanced emergency braking, and crash-test improved safety belts.

This is certainly food for thought for Canadian fleet managers who are contemplating investing in new work trucks, and wondering which safety systems should be added to the spec sheet.