News
A software bug that can result in a crashed car sending incorrect location information to emergency services has led to a recall of 1.3 million vehicles by Mercedes-Benz in the USA. The recall came to light in a report published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency (NHTSA) earlier this month, which references “a case in the European market” where a car was found to have sent incorrect location data following a collision. There is no central agency for vehicle recalls in the EU. […]
Euro NCAP, the consumer vehicle safety testing organisation, has launched a new app giving rescue workers easier access to “rescue sheets”, detailed information for different car models on how to safely extricate occupants. After a collision, getting the injured to emergency care quickly and safely is critical. But knowing where and how to cut vehicles open to safely extricate occupants is challenging for emergency rescue workers. In recent years devices such as airbags and electrical vehicle batteries have added to the complexity, and the […]
Belgium will be the ninth EU country to implement the emergency corridor system to enable emergency response teams faster access to crash sites when a new requirement comes into force on 1 October. The news was reported in July by Flemish news channel VRT. The system, which has been shown to reduce response times by 4 minutes, and increase survival rates by 40%, is already used in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia and Switzerland. The system was a focus of […]
The consumer vehicle safety rating organisation Euro NCAP has announced major changes to its testing process. A significant difference in the new 2020 testing regime is the implementation of a new “moving barrier to moving car” frontal crash test. This new test not only evaluates the protection of occupants inside the car being tested, but also assesses how a car’s front-end structure contributes to injuries in the “collision partner” i.e. the other vehicle involved. This could be important, for example, in judging the safety […]
The Prime Minister of Poland has announced that the country’s anomalous night-time 60 km/h speed limits in urban areas will soon be scrapped, as part of a new package of road safety measures. Poland is the only country in Europe with different speed limits in urban areas during the day and at night. The speed limit will be changed to 50 km/h at all times. Hungary, which reduced its urban speed limit from 60 to 50 km/h in 1993, saw a reduction in mean […]
Poland is the eighth European country to implement an “emergency corridor” system to clear the way for emergency vehicles on congested roads. The system, which has been shown to reduce response times by 4 minutes, and increase survival rates by 40%, is already used in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Switzerland but was not widely known outside of those countries. The system was a focus of ETSC’s REVIVE project on improving post-collision response and was presented at a number of […]
A short animated film by ETSC explaining the “emergency corridor” system used by several European countries has been shared by thousands of people and seen by around half a million users on the Facebook social media platform. The emergency corridor system, which enables emergency vehicles to reach collision sites faster, requires vehicles to separate in a systematic, organised way during periods of traffic congestion, in order to make a clear path wide enough for a fire engine to pass. The measure is in place […]
ETSC gathered experts from several EU countries at an event in Madrid last month to discuss best practice in emergency response after road collisions. Access to collision sites, extraction techniques and the structure of emergency response systems were covered in an event that brought together emergency response specialists from Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Presentations and a summary of the event, part of ETSC’s REVIVE project, can be downloaded from the ETSC website.