Delivery Vans: A Growing Safety Concern
The surge in e-commerce has brought with it an increasing number of delivery vans on American roads. While these vehicles are essential for bringing packages to our doorsteps, they are also involved in a significant number of crashes, raising concerns about safety.
According to research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), funded by auto insurers, these light vans – those with a gross vehicle weight rating under 10,000 pounds, including models like the Ford Transit, Ram ProMaster, and Mercedes Sprinter – are involved in approximately 935,000 police-reported crashes annually. These crashes include around 98,000 injuries and 3,600 fatalities, highlighting the urgent need for improved safety measures.
Fortunately, many of these crashes could be avoided or mitigated by incorporating technologies already widely available in passenger vehicles. The IIHS suggests that several preventative technologies could make a significant difference:
- Front crash prevention systems, like automatic emergency braking, could prevent or lessen the severity of about one-fifth of fatal crashes involving light vans.
- Lane departure prevention technologies could help prevent or reduce the seriousness of roughly 11% of those fatal crashes.
- Automatic emergency braking alone could potentially stop 77,000 light van crashes each year, the IIHS estimates.
“Amazon branded delivery vans are equipped with third-party technology that measures and monitors unsafe driving behaviors such as speeding, distraction, and failure to wear a seat belt or obey a road sign,” Amazon said in a statement shared with CNN. “Since we’ve incorporated this technology into our branded vehicles, [delivery] drivers’ collision rates have declined nearly 40%, and from 2022 to 2023, it reduced unsafe driving behaviors by 62% in the U.S.”
While automatic emergency braking is common in new passenger vehicles, it is less prevalent in light vans. However, several automakers are offering safety features on their vans. Stellantis, the parent company of Ram, confirmed that forward collision warning with brake assist and pedestrian detection are standard on Ram ProMaster vans. Representatives from Ford and Mercedes also stated that many of the features recommended by the IIHS are available on their vans.
There are technologies that address speeding, which is particularly dangerous for heavily loaded vans. The IIHS indicates that technology could prevent 37% of fatal crashes involving delivery vans. Pedestrians could significantly benefit from automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, potentially preventing 1,200 light van crashes involving pedestrians each year.
These safety improvements would benefit everyone on the road. In over 60% of crashes and more than half of fatal crashes involving these vans, the occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, or cyclists were injured or killed. The implementation of readily available safety technologies has the potential to significantly reduce these numbers and make our roads safer for everyone.
