Joachim Werner is to be honored with the 2020 European Commercial Vehicle Safety Award. The veteran engineer at Iveco will receive the award, which has been given jointly by three organizations every year since 1990. The awarding bodies are: the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis (EVU), the German expert organization DEKRA, and the German Road Safety Council (DVR).
“Joachim Werner has made an outstanding contribution to ensuring the future viability of commercial vehicles, in different ways and in a variety of roles,” said the president of the EVU, Jörg Ahlgrimm. “His contributions to both active and passive safety, as well as to the sustainability of medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks, have been many and varied. This year, we are once again honoring a worthy winner.”
Joachim Werner studied mechanical engineering in Stuttgart, specializing in automotive engineering. In 1987, he started working as a design engineer at Iveco Magirus AG in Ulm. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including in his roles as Head of Technical Analyses and as Stralis Truck Safety project manager, Werner played a role in further developing passive truck safety systems, such as an integral cab safety concept for protecting occupants. This development set standards at the time and is still in use, in an improved form, to this day. As part of his responsibilities as Chief Engineer during the development of the Iveco Stralis XP, and as the “Advanced Platform” platform manager, he made major contributions to the development of active driver assistance systems such as the lane guard assistant, automated emergency braking, and automatic distance control. Later, he worked as Chief Engineer for the CO2 Reduction Roadmap, focusing on areas including gas-powered and battery-powered trucks.
“Road safety in commercial vehicles has improved significantly in the last few decades. In particular, active safety systems that help to prevent accidents have huge potential to save lives considering how heavy these vehicles are,” said the president of the DVR, Prof. Walter Eichendorf. “We are honoring Joachim Werner at Iveco with the European Safety Award for his role in these achievements.”
Jann Fehlauer, Managing Director of DEKRA Automobil GmbH, said: “Technology that is initially installed in commercial vehicles usually finds its way into passenger vehicles next, meaning it can be found in all areas of road traffic. This applies not only to safety technology, but also to fuel and sustainability.”
One example of a technology that is already available and can save a considerable amount of CO2 is the use of bio-LNG, i.e., sustainably produced liquefied methane gas, to power trucks. According to figures from the German Energy Agency, bio-LNG enables a reduction in CO2 equivalent of more than 80 per cent in comparison with a diesel-powered truck. Joachim Werner has helped ensure that, nowadays, over 45,000 gas-powered Iveco vehicles which can run on bio-methane are on the roads in Europe.
“In Joachim Werner we are honoring an engineer who, alongside his work to improve safety, has made and continues to make significant contributions to sustainability,” said Jann Fehlauer.
A date for the official awarding of the European Commercial Vehicle Safety Award to Joachim Werner has not yet been planned due to the current situation caused by the pandemic.
List of recipients to date:
1990 Professor Pal Strifler (Daimler), Hungary
1991 Professor Nikolaus Marx (University of Bremen), Germany
1992 Professor Ernst Göhring (Daimler), Germany
1993 Professor Klaus Langwieder (European Insurances Association), Germany
1994 Professor Egon-Christian von Glasner (Daimler), Germany
1995 Professor Gyula Köfalvi (Széchenyi István University), Györ, Hungary
1996 Siegfried Werber (DVR), Germany
1997 Professor Pál Michelberger (University of Budapest, President of FISITA), Hungary
1998 Eric Thoms (Scania), Sweden
1999 Toru Kajiyama (Isuzu), Japan
2000 Richard Hildebrandt (Allied Signal), USA
2001 Paul Oppenheimer MBE (Lucas-Girling), Great Britain
2002 Professor Jovan Todorovic (University of Belgrade), Serbia
2003 Bernard Tripier (Bosch), France
2004 Professor Sigmar Micke (Bosch), USA
2005 Friedrich-Wilhelm Matzner (Bendiberica), Spain
2006 Dr. Fujio Momiyama (Hino), Japan
2007 Dr. Jürgen Trost (Daimler), Germany
2008 Lennart Svenson (Volvo), Sweden
2009 Professor László Palkovics (Knorr), Hungary
2010 Professor Hartmut Marwitz (Daimler), Germany
2011 Hidehiko Enomoto (Hino), Japan
2012 Eberhard Hipp (MAN), Germany
2013 Christian Börner (BG Fahrzeuge), Germany
2014 Dr. Erwin Petersen (WABCO), Germany
2015 Professor Jörg Zürn (Daimler), Germany
2016 Dr. Christian Wiehen (WABCO), Germany
2017 Fredrich Claezon (Scania), Sweden
2018 Alexander Berg (DEKRA), Germany
2019 Dr. Stefan Guserle (MAN), Germany
2020 Kay Morschheuser (Daimler), Germany
2021 Joachim Werner (Iveco), Germany
