SAN ANTONIO – An initiative to put windshield-mounted cameras in city waste management trucks is showing early success, prompting the San Antonio City Council to approve funding Thursday for 100 more cameras.
The initiative began as a pilot program, with 40 cameras installed in 2009, and 100 more in 2011, said David Newman, the city's assistant director of Solid Waste Management.
Since the program began, Newman said preventable accidents involving city truck drivers have decreased from 142 in 2009 to 57 in 2011.
"We identified it as a tool we could use to identify risky behavior from our drivers," said Newman. "If we identify that risky behavior and correct it, then we can hope to reduce accidents."
The cameras, which are designed by a company called DriveCam, do not record constantly, but are triggered by an event like an accident, impact, or hard brake, recording video from the driver's point of view, and capturing the driver's actions inside the cab eight seconds before the event, and two seconds after it.
Newman said the goal is to eventually have every truck in the fleet equipped with a camera.
