For the first time ever, the commercial vehicles manufacturer Scania offers side airbags for their next truck generation.
According to Scania, the side airbags are integrated into the ceiling above the doors. Airbags of this kind are an absolute novelty for heavy commercial vehicles. The new side airbags are designed to protect the occupants when the truck overturns and to significantly reduce the number of fatalities after such accidents. "The use of safety belts is indispensable for the functionality of the safety systems and to ensure that the driver won’t be ejected from his cabin", says Christofer Karlsson, Head of Crash and Safety Systems at Scania. "Our side airbag – especially in combination with the driver’s airbag and the belt tensioner – ensures that the driver and other occupants in the new-generation truck have considerably improved chances of survival and suffer much less severe consequences than in trucks without side airbag."
According to Scania a common cause for causing trucks to overturn is an evasive manoeuvre. If the driver has to avoid other vehicles or obstacles and therefore leaves the roadway, the bearing capacity of the foundation is rarely strong enough. Thus the vehicle could start toppling or in the worst case – depending on its speed – even turnover. Sensors on board of the truck determine if the side airbags in combination with the other airbags in the driver’s cabin have to be activated or not.
