October 2024
Around 40 percent of fatal road accidents in Europe occur in urban areas. In Germany, 80 percent of the victims in urban areas are pedestrians and cyclists. Heavy vehicles such as trucks and vans pose a major risk to these vulnerable road users and too many people are still injured or killed on the roads. A lot still needs to be done to achieve the goal of “Vision Zero”.
For this reason, the topic of the 12th Allianz Motor Day was “Big versus small - how to better protect vulnerable groups in urban traffic.” Among other things, the AZT presented the latest figures from accident research and an international survey on the subject. One of the key findings was that around a third of all accidents between trucks and vulnerable road users that were investigated could be prevented by already known and established technical improvements - for example by an actively intervening emergency brake assistant in trucks or by an improved line of sight for truck drivers.
Frank Sommerfeld (CEO Allianz Versicherungs-AG) on the second topic of the car day, “The use of used spare parts”
Frank Sommerfeld (CEO Allianz Versicherungs-AG), Lucie Bakker (Chief Claims Officer at Allianz Versicherungs-AG) and Christian Sahr (Managing Director AZT) discuss the topic “Big vs. small”
Keynote Speech by Klaus-Peter Röhler (Member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE)
Matthew Avery (Euro NCAP) and Christian Sahr (AZT) discuss the topic “Safety standards of vans and trucks, infrastructure measures of European cities”
Stephan Landgraf (FuhrparkPlus – Fleet Support) demonstrates the current technical possibilities for trucks
Kathrin Hegger (Michel Logistik), Ulrich Stephan (Member of the Board of Allianz Versicherungs-AG), Markus Armbrust (Stellantis) and Ralph Feldbauer (RiskGuard) discuss the topic “A safe fleet is a profitable fleet”
Stephan Pfeiffer (Bavarian Police), Christian Sahr (AZT) and Tina Gehlert (UDV) discuss the topic “Training for drivers of vans and trucks and regulation of age limit for truck drivers”
Group photo with all speakers and panelists
At the 12th Allianz Motor Day, Allianz made three specific demands to car manufacturers and legislators to better protect vulnerable groups in urban traffic:
1. The safety equipment of vans and trucks must exceed the current legal standard. At least, vans should have the same safety systems as new passenger cars since they are using the same highly frequented urban roads. Truck manufacturers should make full use of the innovations already available to help prevent accidents. These include maneuvering windows, lowered cabs, and automatic emergency braking systems when turning.
2. Allianz advocates a Europe-wide harmonization of requirements and calls on the EU legislators to further improve current regulations. For all new trucks, advanced driver assistance systems to prevent turning accidents should be made mandatory as soon as possible. Warning systems, as currently required by law, are not enough. Active braking systems that detect road users in the blind spot and immediately initiate emergency braking should be mandatory. And these systems must always be switched on.
3. Comprehensive data-sharing as intended in the EU Data Act is needed: if Allianz, as an insurer, knows which safety systems are installed and activated in trucks and vans, Allianz can set risk-based rates and incentives.
A live recording of the event and accompanying material (including speeches by the participating Allianz board members and press releases on the topic) can be accessed via the following link: 12th Allianz Motor Day - Live and Digital! (techcast.cloud)
We also had Adam from SkylineTv on board this year, who accompanied the event in his Twitch live stream and provided interesting insights behind the scenes: Allianz Autotag 2024 - von Crashbahn bis LKW🚛-Sicherheitstechnik, die 🚴Leben retten kann !allianz #Werbung - Twitch