As part of the process to modernise its fleet of vehicles, the City Police has acquired four vans for its Accident Prevention and Investigation Unit (UIPA). The model of the vehicles is the Ford Transit Custom Mixt FT 340 L2 Trend M1 2.0 EcoBlue Hybrid 125KW (170CV) Euro 6.2. Besides the new vehicles, another ten electric vans will soon be added, completely renewing the fleet of UIPA vans.
Inclusion of on-board EDR modules
As from July 2022, all newly manufactured vehicles must include an EDR reader module to record on-board data from the last five seconds before a vehicle is involved in a traffic accident. This Event Data Recorder (EDR) can provide data to help determine if there has been any infringement while driving.
The module will facilitate accident investigation work, as well as the conclusions to be drawn from the moment just before a collision, the intensity of the impact, if there has been a manoeuvre, what speed the vehicle was travelling at and whether the occupants were using any safety elements such as seatbelts.
All this information, jointly analysed with first-hand inspections of accident sites, will prove vital for achieving better quality in accident reports and statements from the City Police.
New vans for the dog section
The City Police Dog Unit also has two new Ford Transit custom diesel and microhybrid cross vans, representing an investment of 119,306 euros.
Various improvements have been made to the vehicles to ensure the welfare of animals, such as:
- Specific air-conditioning for the dog compartment, with direct air ducts and an independent battery ensuring three hours of continuous air-conditioning if the vehicle is not in operation.
- Screen offering individual views of each compartment, connected to cameras inside.
- Screen indicating the individual temperatures of compartments.
- Inner emergency doors for dog compartments with quick-access systems (internal extraction in the case of an accident).
The new vans have high-visibility Battenburg paintwork.