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trailer world Issue Two 2014 - Innovation

Issue Two 2014 21 Headlines such as “Truck rams bridge” or “Semitrailer stuck in underpass” are by no means rare in the daily newspapers. Time and time again, exceedingly annoying and costly collisions occur if a semitrailer is simply too high to fit under an obstacle. Ac- cident black spots even attract popular names, for example there is a railway bridge over Wilhelmstraße in the city of Hamm in West- phalia that locals call the “Idiots’ Bridge”. It is not rare for several truck accidents to take place there every month, and for all kinds of reasons: inattention by drivers, failure to notice information signs or lack of local knowledge. There are no exact figures about the number of accidents that occur nationwide, but it cannot be disput- ed that many haulage companies have already been confronted by avoidable accidents of this nature. Greater safety can be achieved by route planning that avoids such low bridges and underpasses – and of course with the knowl- edge of how tall the semitrailer actually is. This applies in par- ticular to trailers with a lifting roof. “The desire to minimise the accident risks when driving under bridges led to the idea of add- ing a sensor to our tried and tested LiftMaster roof lift system, and for it to be integrated into ground-breaking telematics struc- tures,” explains Michael Klatt, head of Product Development at F. Hesterberg & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG. The LiftMaster was Everything under control? In the past, truck drivers were only able to say for certain what the position of their roof lift system was by getting out of the cab and checking the setting themselves. A roof lift system of the HESTAL brand from the BPW subsidiary F. Hesterberg & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG with an integrated sensor will in future send this information to the cockpit automatically. Photo:LotharZimmermann Innovation

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