With 19,000 cyclists being killed or injured every year in the UK, the Bike Hotspot system is being widely used on heavy goods vehicles in London and other cities.
Sentinel Systems won the Product Innovation award at the Safety and Health exhibition as well as a local Cirencester Business award for “Outstanding Product Innovation” for the system, which is designed to sense when a cyclist is within the blind spot of a large vehicle, a common cause for fatal accidents especially when the vehicle is manoeuvring or turning left.
The Bike Hotspot System comprises four of Sentinel’s safety aids including a front corner system, side scan system, a side camera and an external sounder and can be customised to meet the needs of the vehicle and the driver. External scanning sensors are fitted along the nearside of the vehicle as well as the front corner and are linked to an internal audio warning to alert the driver when there is a potential hazard. For extra peace of mind, an external alert is sounded to warn the cyclist or pedestrian that the vehicle is turning left.
‘It is unacceptable that there are such a high number of incidents involving cyclists and HVGs every year and we are confident that the Bike Hotspot system will help to reduce these numbers and increase the confidence of drivers and cyclists, particularly in busy cities,' commented David Paulson, managing director at Sentinel Systems.
The system comes with the option to silence the alerts at night time and alternative LED warning lights can be used to notify the drivers and cyclists. The scanners are programmed to detect cyclists at a particular distance and height to avoid sensing cars or pedestrians that are not at risk and unnecessarily activating the alerting sound. A CAN (Controller Area Network) bus module has also been incorporated to ensure that the alerting system is only activated when the vehicle is manoeuvring at a speed below 10mph.
All vehicles can be fitted with a mobile DVR with up to eight channels providing footage for reference in a defence or claims situation, or for live viewing and surveillance.