Traffic Police to track speed of heavy vehicles with devices in trial
Trial on 30 heavy vehicles expected to end by August
Last year, three in 10 fatal accidents involved a heavy vehicle.
Although the number of accidents involving heavy vehicles fell by 13 per cent from 2016 to last year, there was a rise in the number of traffic violations by heavy vehicle drivers.
This is according to statistics released by the Traffic Police (TP) in February.
In response to the rising trend, TP announced yesterday at the launch of the Singapore Road Safety Month 2018 that it has begun testing the effectiveness of three speed-tracking devices, in trials involving 30 heavy vehicles.
Mr Amrin Amin, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health, was the guest of honour for the event at Republic Polytechnic.
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He noted that the speed-tracking devices will enable companies to monitor the speed records of their drivers and take action against those who speed.
The trial is expected to end by August.
The three devices are the digital tachograph, the enhanced speed limiter and the fleet management system.
The digital tachograph is based purely on the speed pulse of the vehicle and allows users to print a physical record of the vehicle's previous travelling speeds immediately.
Mr Mak Hon Ngai, sales and operations manager of Goldbell Engineering, emphasised that communication is key to convince heavy vehicle drivers to embrace this technology.
"Anyone will be a little uneasy initially when they find out they are being tracked," he said.
"However, drivers need to understand that we are not investing in technology just to penalise them, but because we want them to drive safely for their own good."
The fleet management system makes use of the Global Positioning System to calculate the travelling speed of a vehicle.
The enhanced speed limiter limits the maximum speed of the vehicle.
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