Federal agencies propose rule that would require automatic brakes in vehicles weighing 10,000 lbs.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced a proposed rule that would require any vehicle weighing more than 10,000 pounds to have automatic emergency brakes.

The sensors in automatic brake systems detect when a vehicle is about to crash. There are about 60,000 rear-end incidents yearly where the striking vehicle is 10,000 pounds or heavier. Buses and heavy-duty trucks are examples of vehicles to which the rule would apply.

Mandating automatic brakes to prevent those incidents would prevent 19,118 crashes, 8,814 injuries, and 155 deaths, the agencies claim.

“This technology can enhance the effectiveness of commercial motor vehicle crash reduction strategies and reduce roadway fatalities,” FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson said Thursday.

The proposed regulation meets a 2015 NHTSA grant of a rulemaking petition by the Truck Safety Coalition, the Center for Auto Safety, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and Road Safe America, as well as a mandate from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The trucking industry is on board with the planned regulation.

“With NHTSA’s recent regulation requiring AEB on all new passenger vehicles, this proposal for heavy-duty trucks is timely and appropriate. The trucking industry supports the use of proven safety technology like automatic emergency braking,” American Trucking Associations Vice President of Safety Policy Dan Horvath said in a statement.

For the regulation proposed Thursday, manufacturers would have three years from the date of implementation to put automatic brakes in vehicles above 26,000 pounds, and would have until 2028 to put them in vehicles between 10,000 and 26,000 pounds.

Public comment on the proposed rule will be open for 60 days.

NHTSA also proposed a similar rule in late May that would mandate automatic brakes in all new cars within four years of that rule’s implementation.