From time to time, we read about motorists driving into buildings, either due to misjudgement or accidentally pressing the accelerator pedal and panicking when the car shoots forward into a building. Recently, a man crashed into a building even before he could obtain a driving licence.
According to a China Press report, the accident took place in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan at the Nilai driving academy. The man had already finished his driving theory test and was to take the second part which was the practical driving test.
It is believed that he was nervous and feeling stressed when he was taking the driving test and at one point, he pressed the accelerator pedal too hard. This caused the car, a Perodua Axia, to surge forward and in his panic, he may have kept his foot on the pedal and the crashed into the school’s administrative building.
The impact was quite great and caused damage but fortunately, there were not many people in the building at that time so there were no casualties. However, the 26-year old driver suffered injuries and the Nilai Fire and Rescue Department was at the scene of the accident to get him out of the car.
Pedla Misoperation Control might have helped
While not available in the Axia involved in the accident, Perodua’s Advanced Safety Assist (A.S.A.) which is available in other models has a feature known as Pedal Misoperation Control which might help in such situations.
It can suppress engine power and also automatically apply the brakes if the driver accidentally presses the accelerator pedal. The system activates if the scanning by the stereo camera on the top of the windscreen detects an obstacle within 4 metres from the front of the car and it is travelling at less than 10 km/h.
The scenario which is envisaged is one where the car is facing a wall and the driver intends to reverse but mistakenly shifts into ‘D’, which would move the car forward. If the sudden surge surprises the driver, he or she may try to brake and accidentally press the accelerator pedal even harder.
Should this condition be detected, there will be an alert and the system will also reduce engine power to bring the speed down. This may avoid a collision with the wall or reduce the damage due to lowering of the speed before impact.
However, it is uncertain if Pedal Misoperation Control would have helped in the situation at the driving academy as the conditions might not have been right to trigger the safety system which is more for starting off.
If the car was already moving and building up speed, then the system might not have come into action. There is also another system in the A.S.A. suite called Pre-Collision Braking. This too automatically activates the brakes if the car is headed for a collision and the driver does not do anything to prevent it.
Such active safety systems are not 100% guaranteed to work due to the variety of different conditions to activate them. However, if they can work in even 75% of the situations and help prevent accidents or reduce injuries, that’s already beneficial. A.S.A. is available in certain top variants of the Axia (first and second generation).
