Automatic Emergency Braking: Will New Rules Make Roads Safer?
If you drive I-95 through Maine or share two-lane rural highways with tractor-trailers, you already know how intimidating big rigs can be. When an 80,000-pound truck fails to stop in time, the result is often a devastating rear-end crash. Federal regulators now want to change that by requiring automatic emergency braking (AEB) on most heavy trucks – with key rulemaking steps expected in 2025.
For people injured in Maine truck crashes, these new rules could save lives, reduce the severity of collisions, and add powerful evidence in personal-injury cases.
What Is Automatic Emergency Braking on Big Rigs?
Automatic emergency braking uses radar, cameras, and onboard computers to:
- Monitor traffic ahead,
- Warn the driver about an impending collision, and
- Automatically apply the brakes if the driver does not react in time, or boost braking force if the driver brakes too lightly.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) have proposed a new safety standard that would require AEB on heavy vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds – the category that includes most tractor-trailers and large buses.
According to NHTSA, heavy trucks rear-end other vehicles about 60,000 times every year. Once implemented, the proposed AEB standard could prevent more than 19,000 crashes annually, save 155 lives, and prevent 8,800+ injuries.
Where the 2025 Rules Stand
The heavy-truck AEB requirement is not brand-new; regulators began the rulemaking process with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in 2023. In the federal government’s 2025 regulatory agenda, NHTSA lists “Heavy Vehicle Automatic Emergency Braking” as an ongoing rulemaking with a revised proposal scheduled for late 2025.
In plain English, that means:
- The agencies already proposed rules in 2023.
- They reviewed public comments from truck manufacturers, safety groups, and the public.
- They now plan a supplemental proposal in 2025 to fine-tune performance standards and testing procedures before issuing a final rule.
At the same time, NHTSA has already finalized a separate rule requiring AEB on new cars and light trucks, projecting that FMVSS No. 127 will save at least 360 lives and prevent 24,000 injuries each year once fully in effect.
Those light-vehicle benefits give a strong hint: a well-designed AEB rule for big rigs could provide similar life-saving gains for people who share the road with commercial trucks.
Why Maine Has a Lot at Stake
Heavy trucks play a huge role in Maine’s economy, from paper mills and forestry to agriculture and port traffic. That also means big rigs show up in a significant percentage of serious crashes.
Maine DOT’s latest five-year report shows 9,099 truck crashes between 2020 and 2024, including 78 fatal crashes and thousands of injury crashes involving medium and heavy trucks. Nationally, crashes involving large trucks killed 5,472 people in 2023, and 70% of those killed were occupants of other vehicles.
Most fatal truck crashes happen on weekdays and often on rural roads – a pattern that matches Maine’s mix of interstate and rural freight routes.
Because tractor-trailers take so long to stop, even a modest reduction in impact speed can mean the difference between a totaled bumper and a wrongful-death claim. AEB aims to shave off crucial miles per hour before impact, especially in highway rear-end scenarios where the truck is the striking vehicle.
How AEB Could Change Maine Truck Crash Cases
From a safety standpoint, AEB on big rigs should reduce the number and severity of crashes. From a legal standpoint, it also changes how attorneys and insurers evaluate fault:
1. New Standards for Reasonable Care
Once AEB becomes standard equipment, juries may view a truck without AEB – or a disabled system – as less safe. If a crash occurs because a motor carrier refused to upgrade its fleet or turned off safety systems, that decision may support a claim for negligent maintenance, negligent operation, or even punitive damages in extreme cases.
2. More Electronic Evidence
AEB systems generate data: warnings issued, brake-assist events, and sensor readings. Modern large-truck crash cases already rely on “black box” data and telematics; AEB adds another layer of information we can use to show:
- How quickly the system detected the hazard,
- Whether the driver responded to warnings, and
- How much braking the truck actually delivered before impact.
If that data shows the driver ignored multiple forward-collision alerts, it can be powerful evidence of negligence.
3. Fewer Excuses for Rear-End Collisions
Rear-end crashes where a big rig plows into stopped or slowing traffic often stem from inattention, tailgating, or fatigue. With AEB in place, it becomes harder for trucking companies to argue that “nothing could have been done.” The system exists precisely to prevent or mitigate those crashes; failure to install it, maintain it, or keep it active looks more like a choice than bad luck.
Will AEB Solve Every Problem? No—But It Helps.
Even the best AEB system has limits:
- It may not perform perfectly in snow, fog, or Maine’s harsh winter conditions.
- It might struggle with stationary objects or complex work zones.
- Poor maintenance or improper repairs can reduce effectiveness.
- Drivers can still override or disable safety features.
Safety advocates also warn that some drivers may over-rely on AEB and follow too closely, assuming the system will always bail them out.
Still, research on existing truck AEB systems shows meaningful reductions in rear-end crashes and crash severity. NHTSA’s projections of saving 155 lives a year with a heavy-vehicle AEB rule are not theoretical—they build on real-world data from fleets that already use the technology.
For people hurt in Maine truck crashes, the key takeaway is simple: AEB won’t prevent every wreck, but it can reduce impact speed and injuries in many of the worst ones.
What Injured Mainers Should Do After a Truck Crash
Whether a truck has AEB or not, you should take the same steps after a serious collision:
- Call 911 and get medical care immediately.
- Preserve evidence: photos, dash-cam video, witness information, and your damaged vehicle.
- Do not talk to the trucking company’s insurer before you understand your rights.
- Contact an experienced Maine truck accident lawyer who knows how to obtain electronic data, maintenance records, and logs from motor carriers.
At Peter Thompson & Associates, we track developments in federal truck-safety rules closely. When a crash involves a big rig, we dig into:
- Whether the truck had AEB or other advanced safety systems,
- How those systems performed,
- Whether the motor carrier followed emerging industry standards, and
- How the crash could have been prevented with reasonable care.
Injured in a Maine Truck Crash? Talk with Peter Thompson & Associates.
Automatic emergency braking for big rigs won’t magically fix every safety problem on Maine roads, but it will raise the bar for how safely trucks must operate. As the 2025 rulemaking moves forward, AEB will increasingly shape both crash outcomes and legal accountability.
If a tractor-trailer or other heavy truck injured you or a loved one in Maine, contact Peter Thompson & Associates for a free consultation. We’ll review the crash, analyze the truck’s electronic data, and fight for the full compensation you deserve under Maine law.