Vehicle safety
The European Parliament is urging the European Commission to consider mandating regular technical inspections for all motorcycles in all EU Member States when vehicle roadworthiness rules are revised in 2023. Only motorcycles above 125cc are required to be checked under rules on regular technical inspections today, though many EU member states require checks on such vehicles anyway. In a report approved by the Parliament’s online plenary session on 3 March, parliamentarians set out a number of changes they would like to see that would […]
A group of European cities, including Berlin, Paris and London, have called on their national governments to address truck blind spots that put pedestrians and cyclists’ lives at risk. The cities call for an ambitious direct vision standard for trucks which would greatly improve road safety, particularly for vulnerable road users. This year national governments are due to pass a direct vision standard for trucks at the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) which should be applied across the European Union from 2026 thanks […]
ETSC, together with a coalition of organisations, has written to members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) with a call to prevent the weakening of the minimum requirements for Intelligent Speed Assistance technology. The European Union agreed last year that all new cars, vans, lorries and buses should be fitted as standard with a range of new vehicle safety technologies, starting in 2022. The measures are predicted to prevent 25,000 road deaths within fifteen years, according to analysis […]
Women are much more likely than men to suffer a serious injury when they are involved in a crash, but much of the heightened risk is related to the types of vehicles women drive and the circumstances of their crashes, rather than physical differences. That is the conclusion of new research carried out by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Though men are involved in more fatal crashes than women, on a per-crash basis women are 20-28 percent more likely than men […]
The transition period is over and a deal has been done. What will the implications be for road safety regulation and cooperation now that the UK has left the EU and a new trade deal has been signed? The biggest changes are where no agreement was reached and/or EU rules no longer apply to the UK. The EU legislation on cross-border enforcement of traffic offences no longer applies, meaning the UK is not able to easily follow-up on traffic penalties such as speeding tickets […]
ETSC has reiterated calls for regulators to look again at the safety of vehicles with Level 2 assistance systems as carmakers increase pressure to allow such systems to be operated “hands off”. In a letter to the Financial Times, published in January, ETSC wrote that it is not clear what effect these new technologies are having on road death and injury numbers because crash investigations almost never take into account if such systems were functional at the time of a collision. However, forensic investigations […]
Euro NCAP, the consumer car safety rating organisation, says businesses should avoid buying several models of new vans including the FIAT Talento, Opel/Vauxhall Movano, Nissan NV400, Renault Master and Renault Trafic, due to poor safety ratings in its newly launched van rating scheme. Fourteen commercial vans qualified for an award by Euro NCAP under new criteria that prioritise crash avoidance and driver assistance systems. Nineteen vans, covering 98 percent of European sales last year, were tested in accordance with Euro NCAP 2018 Safety Assist […]
New mandatory public procurement guidelines issued by the UK government require central government departments and their related organisations to purchase vehicles with a minimum of a valid five star Euro NCAP safety rating. The welcome move is the first European national government-wide procurement policy that ETSC is aware of that requires the five star rating. A 2017 ETSC report on work-related road safety highlighted the examples of the Finnish Transport Safety Agency and the Swedish Transport Administration who both set the five-star standard for […]
Portugal took over the EU Presidency on 1 January 2021 as the EU continues to grapple with the Covid-19 crisis, which has brought additional challenges for transport and mobility policies. In a new briefing, ETSC has outlined its recommendations on the key EU road safety policy dossiers to be steered by the Portuguese Presidency over the next six months. The issues covered include the new sustainable and smart mobility strategy, EU-Africa cooperation on road safety, the urban mobility package, opportunities for transport safety funding […]
Millions of old, polluting and unsafe cars are being exported from richer regions to African nations every year, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme. Used Vehicles and the Environment – A Global Overview of Used Light Duty Vehicles: Flow, Scale and Regulation, the first-ever report of its kind, calls for action to fill the current policy vacuum with the adoption of harmonised minimum quality standards that will ensure used vehicles contribute to cleaner, safer fleets in importing countries. The […]
Drivers fidget with electronics and take both hands off the wheel more often as they develop trust in assistance systems, new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab shows. To investigate how experience with partial automation affects driver disengagement, the researchers studied the driving behaviour of 20 volunteers over a month’s time as they gained familiarity with advanced driver assistance features, examining how often they removed both hands from the steering wheel or took their […]
ETSC, together with a coalition of organisations, has written to all 27 EU Transport Ministers and Industry Ministers expressing concern that vital new EU vehicle safety standards, set to come into force from 2022, could be set for a severe blow. The European Union agreed last year that all new cars, vans, lorries and buses should be fitted as standard with a range of new vehicle safety technologies, starting in 2022. The measures are predicted to prevent 25,000 road deaths within fifteen years, according […]
Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) is one of the vehicle safety technologies included in the EU’s new General Safety Regulation for motor vehicles (GSR) and will become mandatory for all new vehicles types as of 2022 and all new vehicles as of 2024. The detailed technical requirements for ISA are currently being prepared by the European Commission, who as part of that process have presented a “draft delegated act”. ETSC welcomes the draft delegated act, however, calls on the European Commission to incorporate the following […]
Euro NCAP has launched a new rating scheme for driver assistance systems fitted to the latest generation of vehicles, including advanced cruise control and lane keeping assistance. Some manufacturers have been criticised for using inappropriate marketing, weak driver monitoring or poor safety backup. For its 2020 assessment of so-called “highway assist” systems, Euro NCAP developed a dedicated test and assessment protocol, divided into two main areas: Assistance Competence, based on the balance between Driver Engagement and Vehicle Assistance, and Safety Backup. The systems score […]
Thatcham Research and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) are urging the UK government to revise its plans to introduce Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS) onto UK roads in early 2021 because “it will put road users’ lives at risk”. The organisations say the government should undertake further work to ensure road safety is fully considered before introducing Automated Lane Keeping Systems. The concerns are raised as both the functionality of ALKS technology and the regulations under which they will operate will mean that […]
A study carried out for ETSC’s Italian member ACI by the Filippo Caracciolo Foundation in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin has investigated the real world effectiveness of automated emergency braking (AEB) systems in preventing rear-end collisions. The authors cross-referenced data including: information from event data recorders in a sample of 1.5 million vehicles in 2017 and 1.8 million in 2018; information on the nature of collisions extracted from the ACI-ISTAT database and model information for cars on the road (the Public Automobile Register). […]
The EU roadworthiness package was last revised in 2014 and consists of Directive 2014/45/EC on Periodic Roadworthiness tests, Directive 2014/47/EC on technical roadside inspections of commercial vehicles and Directive 2014/46/EC on the requirements for issuing registration certificates with implementation in May 2018. The EC is in the phase of preparing its implementation report, expected to be published in the autumn, and the EP will prepare its own implementation report following this. ETSC has prepared this updated position paper to feed into this process including […]
ETSC and a coalition of organisations have written to EU Member States raising serious concerns about draft technical specifications for Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), a mandatory new safety technology for new vehicles due to be introduced from 2022. Excessive speed is still one of the biggest killers on our roads, as the latest data from Germany confirm. Around a third of fatal collisions involve at least one party driving at an inappropriate speed, with cyclists and pedestrians being particularly susceptible. Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) […]
The entry-into-force of a new law in Finland to permit children as young as 15 to drive regular cars fitted with speed limiters has been withdrawn following drawn-out discussions with the European Commission about the legal and road safety implications of the scheme. The proposals, put forward two years ago by the Finnish government, would have allowed children to drive cars up to 1500 kg at speeds of up to 60 km/h and with only an AM category license – normally reserved for mopeds […]
The European Commission will not give carmakers extra time to comply with planned safety or environmental legislation, according to a news report. “The Commission will not propose to postpone the entry into force of any new pollutant emissions or safety legislation,” Johannes Bahrke, a Commission spokesperson was reported as saying by Politico Pro – a subscription EU policy news service. The statement followed a public letter sent by the carmaker lobby group ACEA in June calling for a six-month delay to several pieces of […]