Dennis Eagle has said its participation in the Clocs initiative has helped it ensure its latest Elite, low-entry chassis with panoramic windscreen is its safest design to date.

Working with operators, academics and TfL officials in investigating the issue of HGV blind spots, the manufacturer said eye contact between drivers and vulnerable road users came out as a key factor in helping prevent collisions.

Dennis Eagle said it has now designed an additional safety feature into its latest Euro-6 Elite models by increasing the size of the rear passenger window to enable a clearer angle of vision for the driver.

“The Clocs project, and the findings of the Loughborough Design School Report, highlight just how much safer vulnerable road users are around a low-entry cab,” said Lee Rowland, sales and marketing manager at Dennis Eagle. “Eye contact is so important between a driver and a road user, so we are always looking at ways of improving visibility.”

Dennis Eagle is already a major player in the municipal RCV sector with its low-entry chassis, and recently announced its intention to break into the construction and general haulage sectors.

It will be bringing along a skiploader version of its Elite 6 model to the fifth Clocs progress event at London’s ExCeL later this month, which will be fitted with a specific off-road kit, as well as a camera system and a new vehicle side safety protection system.

The Elite 6 skiploader will be put into operation by hauliers taking part in Clocs as a demonstrator vehicle on their fleets.

“What’s great about the Elite 6 is that, in addition to the panoramic windscreen, it has many other transferable qualities that make it suitable for construction and logistics applications,” said Rowland.

He added that the manufacturer’s experience through taking the vehicle off-road on landfill sites encouraged it to modify its design so the lights sat higher up in the cab frame: “Rough terrain can easily misalign lighting, so having it that much further up the cab eliminates any potential issue.”