Helping Municipalities Face the Danger of Snowplows
Snowstorms have historically overwhelmed many cities, and the severe weather conditions have hindered the circumstances of the roads and the safety of pedestrians. In many countries, there have been numerous accidents that occurred due to snowplows clearing streets and pedestrians sidewalks, although snowplows face severe weather conditions in their job to keep the roads safe and open for pedestrians and vehicles.
In Montreal, Canada, the number of accidents involving snowplows and snow-removal vehicles has climbed from 490 in 2016 to 868 in 2018 (cbc.ca, 2019).
In 2016, a man was killed by a snowplow truck in the Montreal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood. According to (cbc.ca, 2016) “…the snow truck driver involved never saw the pedestrian.”
Montreal police said it appears the pedestrian was struck while the truck was turning left onto Girouard street. The incident occurred demonstrates how intersections can be a risky and challenging situation that leads to fatal outcomes.
A recent study conducted by the University of Toronto Engineering researchers has studied the human eye movements of drivers at busy intersections and found that drivers fail to do proper safety checks for people biking and walking. Pedestrian safety calls for mandatory safety measures with AI embedded to protect pedestrians from causing a collision with snowplows.
Plow truck drivers often work long shifts that fall on the evening hours of the day to early hours of the day. Due to the length of their shits, plow truck drivers can become tired and inattentive behind the wheel, which could lead to collisions and fatalities.
The imposing size of snowplows makes it extremely difficult to see around them and to determine if it is clear and safe to pass. The snowplow drivers and vehicles put all external surroundings from pedestrians to vehicles at risk for injuries, damages, and fatalities.
Although, the Quebec government is aware of the situations and acknowledges the room for improvements, a way to facilitate these issues and help the snowplows stay alert on their job is by implementing GPS technologies and AI systems.
One company that addresses this issue is !important . It has been working on a software application embedded with AI, that works to aid vehicles with GPS signals, which will create safe interactions between pedestrians and snowplow vehicles by controlling speed and brakes of vehicles when a pedestrian or pet is nearby, which will eliminate fatalities and injuries. Their software application includes Pedestrian to Vehicle (P2V) and Pedestrian to Everything (P2X) solutions for the automotive industries.
Implementing these systems in snowplow vehicles helps because of the low visibility from poor weather conditions, inattention from vehicles and pedestrians, hazards caused by poor weather, and reckless driving.
Artificial intelligence has significant benefits on many topics, such as security and safety. AI has become a substantially safer outcome, eliminating human error out of the equation in complex situations. AI systems can now solve and exceed human capabilities in applying machine learning systems that have become better at pattern recognition than humans to address challenging circumstances.
Therefore, to minimize the risk of collisions or fatalities is by ensuring that AI technologies have been embedded in their systems, which will allow snowplow drivers to stay alert and properly drive their vehicles.
Improving the conditions of municipalities snowplow vehicles constitute a significant factor to consider, especially in areas where snow is a considerable challenge. By implementing AI in snowplow vehicles, it will eliminate the fatalities of pedestrians and create safer outcomes. Therefore, municipalities must tackle this issue before another severe winter arrives.
