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The winner of this year’s EuroTra Safety and Innovation Award is Bertocco Shell, a collaboration between Bertocco Automotive Engineering of Italy and Shell Chemicals BV of Holland. The Freight Transport Association is responsible for the research, management, administration and development of this Pan-European award.
Bertocco Shell won the award for its device which warns tanker drivers of an imminent roll-over situation. The device consists of a sensor unit mounted between the rear axles of the trailer and a receiver mounted in the truck’s cabin. As the driver adjusts his behaviour, the device provides him with instant feedback as to the implications on the stability of the vehicle. As such, the driver receives an early warning on the stability of his vehicle while remaining in control of the situation.
James Tillyer of FTA’s Consultancy team and a Vice President of EuroTra was the Award manager. He said:
"Once again we were delighted with the quality of entries. The award panel recognised the risk of roll-overs involving petro-chemical tankers and this reasonably simple device could make a valuable contribution to safety. The production cost and subsequent retail value would be a justifiable and achievable investment to most European companies using tankers."
The judging panel for the award consisted of EuroTra President, Geert Machenil; Traffic and Product Safety Director for Volvo Trucks, Carl Johan Almqvist; and EuroTra Co-ordinator, Hans Konings.
