TRIMARC Intelligent Transport System, Featuring Mitsubishi Electric's Auto Incident Recording System, Wins 2003 National Road Safety Award.Business Editors TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2003 The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two "programs," The Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway has announced that TRIMARC TRIMARC Traffic Response and Incident Management Assisting the River Cities (Kentucky) (Traffic Response and Incident Management Assisting the River Cities), an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) jointly administered by the Kentucky State Transportation Cabinet and the Indiana State Department of Transportation, is to receive a prestigious National Highway Safety Award. TRIMARC, which employs an Auto Incident Recording System (AIRS) produced and developed by Mitsubishi Electric Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (三菱電機株式会社 , was commended for reducing the accident rate at a traffic intersection by 50 percent. With a high degree of precision, AIRS is able to record the conditions before and after an accident or near miss has occurred. In July 2001, the Kentucky State Transportation Cabinet became the first state-level transportation authority in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. to install such a system. Award Background The Auto Incident Recording System (AIRS) in Louisville, Kentucky  “Louisville” redirects here. For other uses, see Louisville (disambiguation). is located in a busy commercial district at the junction of Brook Street Brook Street is one of the principal streets on the Grosvenor Estate in the exclusive central London district of Mayfair. It was developed in the first half of the 18th century and runs from Hanover Square to Grosvenor Square. and Jefferson Street. The frequency of accidents and near misses at the intersection used to be extremely high, with approximately 32,000 vehicles passing through every day. Mitsubishi Electric's sales partner, Northrop Grumman, in cooperation with local police and public service agencies, handles the analysis of the data collected by the system, which is operated as a part of TRIMARC. Results of recordings taken at the junction of Brook Street and Jefferson Street revealed that drivers making illegal left turns caused 50 percent of the collisions and 33 percent of the near misses. In response to these findings, measures taken to erect new signs subsequently led to a 50 percent reduction in the number of accidents, for which TRIMARC and AIRS were highly commended by the Federal Highway Administration. Award Summary TRIMARC was one of 13 (out of 130) projects which received an award from the Roadway Safety Foundation and the Federal Highway Administration for improvements made to the design, management and general plan of the intersection, and for its role in the prevention of road deaths. This success follows TRIMARC's winning a "Best of ITS" award at the 2002 Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) of America conference in Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city located in southern Los Angeles County, California, USA, on the Pacific coast. It borders Orange County on its southeast edge. It is about 20 miles (30 km) south of downtown Los Angeles. . The Next Step Mitsubishi Electric is extremely proud of AIRS' demonstrated ability to reduce accident rates, and is looking forward to promoting this highly commended system around the world. System description An AIRS installation consists of a camera, an audio receiver and a control box located at an intersection where the frequency of accidents is high. The audio receiver is capable of detecting sounds, such as the squeal of brakes, when an accident or near miss occurs, as well as being able to determine the strength, frequency and shape of radio waves Radio waves Electromagnetic energy of the frequency range corresponding to that used in radio communications, usually 10,000 cycles per second to 300 billion cycles per second. . When an accident or near miss occurs, an audiovisual recording of the pre and post-event scene is saved in the control boxes' internal memory and automatically transmitted to a VTR (VideoTape Recorder) A videotape recording and playback machine. VTR may refer to consumer MiniDV and DV recorders or to professional machines such as Betacam, DVCPRO and DVCAM. unit. AIRS was developed with the intention of making a significant contribution to reducing accident rates and improving the conditions at intersections where accidents occur frequently. About Mitsubishi Electric With over 80 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products to both corporate clients and general consumers all over the world, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE See Tokyo Stock Exchange. TSE 1. See Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). 2. See Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE). :6503) is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation and building equipment. The company has operations in 35 countries and recorded consolidated group sales Group sales Block sale (of large amounts) of securities to institutional investors. group sales The distribution of a new security issue to institutional clients. of 3,639 billion yen (US$30.3 billion*) in the year ended March 31, 2003. For more information visit http://global.mitsubishielectric.com *At an exchange rate of 120 yen to the US dollar, the rate given by the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market on March 31, 2003. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion