Dr. Christian Wiehen Honored with European Commercial Vehicle Safety Award

Dr. Christian Wiehen is honored with the European Commercial Vehicle Safety Award for his lifetime achievement. The award is presented at the 2016 annual congress of the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis (EVU) in Bratislava.

“Dr. Christian Wiehen is receiving the honor for his excellent engineering services in the field of driver assistance systems for commercial vehicles and commercial vehicle combinations, which have contributed to a significant improvement in active safety in road traffic in recent years in particular,” said Prof. Egon-Christian von Glasner, President of the EVU, in his congratulatory speech.

This year, the award is presented for the 27th time by the EVU, the German Road Safety Council, and DEKRA for outstanding technical innovation or for outstanding lifetime achievement to individuals who have distinguished themselves in the furtherance of commercial vehicle safety.

Christian Wiehen was born in Hamburg in 1954. He completed his degree in mechanical engineering at Hanover Technical University in 1981 and earned his PhD as a graduate engineer there in 1985.

He started his career at WABCO Westinghouse Fahrzeugbremsen in Hanover as head of the development of hydraulic brake systems. In 1991, he assumed management of the development of electronic brake and control systems and was appointed General Manager of WABCO Perrot Bremsen in Mannheim, Germany, in 1997. There, he promoted the development of disk brakes for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. In 1999, Christian Wiehen was appointed head of product development at WABCO Fahrzeugregelsysteme in Hanover, Germany, where he made a significant contribution to the development of electronic stability control systems (ESC) in towing vehicles and trailers.

This was followed by the appointment to Vice President for Product Marketing and Development of WABCO Vehicle Control Systems in Brussels, Belgium, in 2002. There, he was responsible for the development and systematic market launch of the adaptive cruise control (ACC) and the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS).

In 2008, Christian Wiehen was named Chief Technology Officer of WABCO Holdings Inc. and Managing Director of WABCO Holding GmbH in Hanover. Since then, he has been responsible for the overall development of driving dynamics systems, and, in addition, he has been heavily involved in the development and further optimization of advanced emergency braking systems (AEBS) for commercial vehicles and buses.

Frank Leimbach, DEKRA Representative Technical Affairs who stood in for DEKRA Management Board member Clemens Klinke, said: “This year again, the European Commercial Vehicle Safety Award is going to a proven expert who, with his outstanding research and development activities, has contributed significantly to the advancement of commercial vehicle accident statistics, which has been very positive overall.”

Christian Kellner, Managing Director of the German Road Safety Council (DVR), praised Christian Wiehen’s achievements: “Together with its members, the DVR works tirelessly to further reduce the number of accidents and their consequences. In doing so, we are guided by the safety philosophy ‘VISION ZERO'. Driver assistance systems like those designed by Christian Wiehen have made an important contribution to reducing accidents in the past and will do so to an increasing extent in the future.”

The award winners:
1990 Prof. Pal Strifler (Daimler), Hungary
1991 Prof. Nikolaus Marx (University of Bremen), Germany
1992 Prof. Ernst Göhring (Daimler), Germany
1993 Prof. Klaus Langwieder (European Insurances Association), Germany
1994 Prof. Egon-Christian von Glasner (Daimler), Germany
1995 Prof. Gyula Köfalvi (Széchenyi István University), Györ, Hungary
1996 Siegfried Werber (DVR), Germany
1997 Prof. Pál Michelberger (University 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 Prof. Jovan Todorovic (University of Belgrade), Serbia
2003 Bernard Tripier (Bosch), France
2004 Prof. 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 Prof. László Palkovics (Knorr), Hungary
2010 Prof. Hartmut Marwitz (Daimler), Germany

(from left) Christian Kellner, Managing Director of the German Road Safety Council (DVR); Award Recipient Dr. Christian Wiehen; Frank Leimbach, DEKRA Representative Technical Affairs; Prof. Dr. Egon-Christian von Glasner, EVU President