Skip to main content

Sony cameras and video analysis advance road tunnel safety in Sweden

Road tunnels are a particularly dangerous environment. Not only do fires burn more violently in enclosed environments, as happened in the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel disaster, the low lighting and confined reaction space mean accidents are more likely to happen. Authorities must, therefore, be easily and quickly alerted to accidents, breakdowns and equipment must be working at all time.
May 16, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Road tunnels are a particularly dangerous environment. Not only do fires burn more violently in enclosed environments, as happened in the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel disaster, the low lighting and confined reaction space mean accidents are more likely to happen. Authorities must, therefore, be easily and quickly alerted to accidents, breakdowns and equipment must be working at all time.

To manage this process Sweden has implemented camera surveillance systems on almost all large tunnels. The latest to gain this technology is on the Norra Länken (Northern Link), a motorway in Stockholm, between Norrtull and Karlberg. Once complete, almost 500 cameras will monitor the entire tunnel and the surface road network.

To implement the network, Swedish authorities turned to 5572 ISG, a systems integrator and intelligent video analysis specialist, based in the southern, coastal city of Höganäs.

The ISG system, at the heart of which is a 576 Sony FCB vision camera, monitors traffic flow and analyses the video for incidents, such as breakdowns or accidents. Upon detection, the system automatically sends image sequences directly to Trafikverket and Stockholm Stad's (the City of Stockholm’s) traffic management centre, Trafik Stockholm, enabling the operations management team to determine further actions.

ISG is also in the process of upgrading functionality be adding additional, complementary technologies, for example radar detectors. ISG’s solution, which can combine information from different detection systems regardless of the technology and brand, is unique. The company will also supply vandal-resistant emergency telephones which are installed for example in first aid rooms, SOS cabins, at all on-ramps and off-ramps and at the parking slots at the various maintenance areas. When distressed road users pick up the phone, the call will be automatically directed to the operators at Trafik Stockholm.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • German authorities use CB-radio message to reduce accidents in roadworks
    April 8, 2014
    Citizen Band radio is proving useful to prevent accidents in Germany’s roadworks. In common with other German Länder (federal regions) with large volumes of commercial vehicles using their trunk road networks, Bavaria had been experiencing high levels of road traffic accidents (RTAs) involving heavy trucks in the vicinity of minor motorway maintenance sites. This was despite the extensive visual warning regulations published in the German federal road safety audit (RSA) guidelines for the protection of site
  • Traffic monitoring and hard shoulder running
    March 1, 2013
    Hard shoulder running is on the increase – and the detection and monitoring of incidents on affected roads is occupying the minds of experts across Europe and the US
  • Hard shoulder running aids uniform traffic flow and safer driving
    January 23, 2012
    David Crawford detects a market for European experience. Well-established now in at least three European countries, Hard Shoulder Running (HSR) on motorways is exciting growing interest in the US. A November 2010 Report to Congress by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), on the Efficient Use of Highway Capacity, notes the role of HSR in the European-style Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategies now being recommended for implementation in the US where, until recently, they were virtually unknown.
  • IR’s invisible benefit for traffic surveillance and enforcement
    June 30, 2016
    Advances in vision technology are enhancing traffic surveillance and enforcement applications. Variable lighting conditions have long been a stumbling block for vision technology applications in the transport sector. With applications such as ANPR, the read-rate may vary between daylight and night and can be adversely affected by glare and low sun. Madrid, Spain-based Lector Vision had these considerations in mind when designing its Traffic Eye ANPR system, which combines off-the-shelf and custom hardware