Brigade Electronics is a specialist in vehicle safety systems

For more than 45 years, Brigade has set itself the goal of making roads and job sites safer by preventing accidents between vehicles/machinery and road users or personnel working on construction sites.

In recent years, very serious incidents involving maneuvering vehicles and machinery occurred on construction sites in the Netherlands. Some collisions involved fatalities. The Signatories of the Governance Code Safety in Construction, including the seven major construction companies in the Netherlands, believe that more should be done to prevent collisions caused by maneuvering vehicles and machinery than has been common practice in the construction industry to date.

To this end, a new Policy document, ''Collision Risk Reduction Policy,'' has been prepared. This Policy describes a number of measures to eliminate or reduce the risk of collision. The measures are described in 5 points, each of which states that if the measure does not help sufficiently, one goes to the next measure. 

Measure 4 of the policy document deals with technical measures that reduce the risk of collision, and this brings us to Brigade's specialty: vehicle safety systems and accident prevention.

BACKEYE^®360

The most comprehensive system is the Backeye 360. This system gives the driver one total view of his vehicle, viewed from above, allowing him to see 360 degrees around his vehicle. Four cameras are mounted on top of the vehicle/machine, sending their real-time images simultaneously to an ECU (Electronic Control Unit). This ECU processes, mixes and merges the images into one overall image. The Backeye 360 is among the absolute best in terms of safety systems because there is no doubt (if properly installed and calibrated) about potential hazards in the blind spot, simply because the system eliminates all blind spots. However, it can happen that a driver may not look at his monitor for a few seconds. In this case, an additional audible warning is effective in the form of radar or ultrasonic detection. 

BACKSENSE RADAR DETECTION

Backsense radar detection detects objects or people in the detection zone and gives the driver an audible warning. In challenging conditions such as moisture, fog, darkness, dust, rough terrain, radar detection is often used. It is a robust system compatible with the Backeye 360, so the driver not only sees his vehicle from above, but also sees marker lines that indicate when something is in the detection zone. 

ZONESAFE

An entirely different, but equally important product for large machines, rolling stock and forklifts in large warehouses, for example, is RFID detection - Zonesafe. This system creates a 360-degree detection zone around the vehicle, reducing the risk of injury to personnel or property damage from collisions. 

One or more antennas are affixed to the vehicle, and personnel working and walking nearby wear a tag. If someone enters the detection zone of the forklift or machine, both the driver and the person wearing a tag will be alerted by the
tag is going to vibrate. 

BBS-TEK

The BBS-Tek is a white noise alarm, which, unlike the above systems, is designed to alert those walking near the vehicle. By means of a ''sshhht shhht'' sound, one hears that a vehicle is approaching and because white noise is a broadband frequency, the sound is also directive in nature; one hears from which direction the vehicle is coming. This system is widely used in places/projects where many vehicles drive around, to prevent noise pollution. This is because white noise is only audible in the danger zone.