Beating blind spots with Lens-Tech Hi Vue
Driver vision specialist Lens-Tech has outlined the safety benefits of its Hi Vue Fresnel lens range for commercial vehicle applications.
“Low-entry truck designs and regulation retrofits have grabbed more than their share of headlines in the run up to London’s Direct Vision Standard (DVS), but that’s not to say there aren’t other ways of improving visibility from inside the cab, some of which are extremely simple and inexpensive,” said the company.
“Lens-Tech’s Hi Vue Fresnel lenses are exactly that. They stick to the truck’s passenger-side window and generate a broader and more acute downward view to highlight vulnerable road users in the blind spot alongside the passenger door.”
The position of the lens means drivers are effectively looking through the window when they cast their gaze across it, explains the company. That means they are not seeing a reversed or inverted mirror image and can therefore process and react to potential hazards faster, it contends.
“Fresnel lenses – which comprise a succession of concentric rings and create a short focal length – have been recognised by prominent bodies such as the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory and Transport for London as useful visual aids for heavy vehicles, while those working on the Crossrail project, (prior to the introduction of the new DVS), had to have a Fresnel lens fitted before they could begin making construction site deliveries,” said Lens-Tech.
“They are also not a complicated retrofit. The Hi Vue Fresnel lens is press-fitted to the window and held in place by ‘peel-back’ self-adhesive – that’s all there is to it.”
Lens-Tech offers two versions of the Hi Vue, both of which can be used in a variety of differently sized trucks. The first is fabricated from PVC and the latest, second-generation model is smaller than its predecessor at 21 x 12cm which, following refinement in response to feedback from drivers, takes up very little window space.
The second is the company’s premium product, which is made from acrylic and creates a sharper view through the lens, as the material is more transparent and brighter. It is also stronger than PVC and has a longer lifespan.
Continuing applications include contracts with Highways England, where lenses are supplied to be fitted to left-hand drive trucks arriving at UK ports to improve drivers’ vision before they embark on UK journeys, in an effort to reduce the number of accidents that can take place when such vehicles change lanes with traditionally limited visibility.
Drivers are also able to obtain the lenses at the UK’s international truck stops when they pause to pay their UK road user levy.
Further afield, Lens-Tech is also a contracted supplier of wide-angle lenses specifically for ‘peeper’ windows for Daimler Trucks North America, kitting out every truck off the production line.
The company additionally cites the low cost of the lens products as among the key advantages of the range.
