Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Trost (48), the developer of Mercedes-Benz Active Brake Assist for commercial vehicles, has been presented with the 2007 European Commercial Vehicle Safety award. The technical appraisal organisation DEKRA, the German Traffic Safety Council (DVR) and the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis (EVU) have honoured the head of the Driver Assistance Systems department at DaimlerChrysler AG for his outstanding contribution to the development of Active Brake Assist, which considerably improves the operating safety of commercial vehicles. The award was presented at the 2nd DEKRA Active Safety Symposium in Klettwitz (Brandenburg).

As head of Driver Assistance Systems at DaimlerChrysler, Dr. Trost with his team has worldwide responsibility for the development of safety and assistance func­tions for heavy commercial vehicles. The main focus of his work is on the develop­ment of electronic architectures for commercial verhicles, strategic projects such as "Steer by Wire" and active safety systems.

In 2002 the electronics expert and his colleagues have previously been nomi­nated for the "German Future Award – The Federal President’s Award for Technology and Innovation" for the development of this emergency braking system for heavy commercial vehicles, a project which had the working title of "Protector" at the time.

This year will be the 18th time that the 2007 European Commercial Vehicle Safety Award has been presented. It is awarded for an outstanding technical innovation or to honour the life’s work of an individual. Its recipients are internationally well-known experts who have made an outstanding contribution to the safety of commercial vehicles.

This further honour for the life-saving technology of Mercedes-Benz Active Brake Assist joins a list of similar awards which also includes the "Yellow Angel" pre­sented by the ADAC.

The DaimlerChrysler vision of "accident-free driving" aims at ensuring that in future, at least half of all road accidents are avoided if the vehicles are equipped with corresponding assistance systems. Active Brake Assist will play an im­portant part in this.

As a contribution to the discussion surrounding new safety systems, Daimler­Chrysler recently presented what experts consider to be the world’s safest truck in series production to both the European Commission in Brussels and to high-ranking representatives from politics, associations and technical appraisal organi­sations in 13 countries. The "Mercedes-Benz Safety Truck" combines all currently available assistance and safety systems, plus the Active Brake Assist (emergency brake assist) system which has recently entered series production.

Mercedes-Benz Active Brake Assist has already been on the market since autumn 2006. In conjunction with Telligent stability control, Telligent proximity cruise control, Telligent lane assist and the driver airbag, it is offered as a particularly favourably priced "Safety Package".

Derived from the proximity cruise control system, Active Brake Assist (emergency brake assist) automatically initiates emergency braking action e.g. if the truck is in danger of a rear-end collision with a slow-moving column of vehicles traveling ahead.

If the rear-end collision cannot be always avoided entirely, the impact speed is at least drastically reduced so that the effects of the accident are far less serious. The forecast is therefore a very realistic one: the new Active Brake Assist (emergency brake assist) can save lives.