Vehicle safety
In a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, 14 organisations have called for a ‘strong and timely response’ to forthcoming proposals from the European Commission on vehicle safety and pedestrian protection, expected on 2 May. The letter is signed by: Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director, European Transport Safety Council Eduardo Chagas, General Secretary, European Transport Workers’ Federation Sigrid de Vries, Secretary General, CLEPA, European Association of Automotive Suppliers Bernhard Ensink, Secretary General, European Cyclists’ Federation Eduard Fernández, Executive Director, CITA, International […]
The hype surrounding automated driving threatens to hold back progress over the next few years in reducing the 1.25m deaths that occur annually on the world’s roads. By 2030, there may well be a few million self-driving cars globally, but there will also be more than 1bn cars driving that do not have such features. Many of those vehicles are the ones that will leave factories this year and next. The issue is that policymakers, as well as carmakers, are becoming so obsessed with […]
More than 8,000 children aged 0-14 years have been killed in road traffic collisions over the last ten years in the European Union, new data show. Half of the children killed were travelling in cars, a third were walking and 13% were cycling, according to a report published today by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). One in every 13 child deaths in the European Union occurs as a result of a road collision. The European Commission is expected to announce a long-overdue update […]
Every day in the European Union, more than thirty children are seriously injured and two are killed in road traffic collisions. More than 8,100 have died over the last decade. The impact of these deaths and life-changing injuries on families and communities is immeasurable. But they also carry an economic cost, which diverts resources that could have been used for education, improving health or other social goods. Children are particularly vulnerable road users. They lack experience and are less visible to other road users […]
The European Commission has requested that six Member States fully transpose into national law rules agreed in 2014 on roadworthiness testing for motor vehicles. The rules, made up of three EU Directives, should have been in place in all Member States by 20 May 2017. To date, however, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Romania and Slovakia have not – or only partially – done so. The Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia have not adopted, published and communicated to the Commission measures on the […]
The South Korean transport ministry has announced that it will require all new large passenger vehicles and trucks to be fitted with Automated Emergency Braking (AEB) and Lane Departure Warning (LDW) systems from January 2019. Meanwhile an expected announcement of new EU vehicle legislation mandating these and other technologies for new cars has been delayed until May. EU vehicle safety standards have not been updated since 2009, and while its 19 proposed measures are more comprehensive than any other region’s current plans, further delays […]
EU Member States have approved an exemption to EU vehicle type approval rules for a new automated lane change system, despite safety concerns being raised. No details of the system have been made public including the name of the make and model of vehicle the system will be fitted to. In a behind-closed-doors meeting in December of the “Technical Committee – Motor Vehicles” (TCMV) EU Member State representatives approved a European Commission decision to grant the German government permission to certify EU-wide a new […]
The Fiat Punto is the first car ever to be awarded a zero star rating by Euro NCAP, the consumer testing organisation, in a development that highlights the risks of the EU failing to update minimum vehicle safety standards for almost a decade. Euro NCAP regularly updates the criteria for its star rating scheme, and retests cars to ensure safety levels are maintained in light of technological improvements. The minimum legal requirements for the EU market however were last updated in 2009 meaning it […]
The European Commission’s working group on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (the C-ITS platform) has published its Phase II Final Report, which includes a number of recommendations for prioritising road safety. C-ITS encompasses sharing of data from transport infrastructure to vehicles, and from vehicle to vehicle. The technology can support drivers but will also develop as a complement to automated and autonomous vehicles. The platform’s road safety working group, of which ETSC was a participant, set out a list of priority C-ITS services with higher […]
Euro NCAP has announced plans setting out how the consumer safety testing programme will evolve and respond to new vehicle safety technologies in the near future. The organisation says it will challenge vehicle manufacturers to offer the best possible technology as standard in all segments and countries, protecting not only car occupants of all ages but also increasingly addressing the safety of other more vulnerable road users. The roadmap outlines a timeline for the introduction of key testing enhancements, including: Primary safety Driver Monitoring […]
The European Parliament says all new cars sold in Europe should be fitted as standard with a range of life-saving technologies including automated emergency braking, intelligent speed assistance and seatbelt reminders in all seats. Safety campaigners say the technologies could be as important as the seat belt, but action is needed now because it will take years before the majority of cars on the roads have the technology. Some 26,000 people died on EU roads last year, a figure that has hardly changed in […]
The Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP) will start to award additional safety points for cars fitted with Speed Assistance Systems (SAS) from next year and Euro NCAP will start to require regular digital map updates in the near future to improve reliability of the systems over time. Euro NCAP has been awarding safety points to carmakers for installation of Speed Assistance Systems since 2013. Several car manufacturers now offer cars fitted with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) systems, the version of the technology preferred by ETSC. Overiddable ISA, which ETSC would like to see made mandatory […]
The European Parliament’s Transport Committee has called for new cars to be fitted as standard with a range of life-saving technologies including automated emergency braking, intelligent speed assistance and intelligent seatbelt reminders in all seats. In a non-binding resolution responding to a report by the European Commission, “Saving Lives: Boosting Car Safety in the EU”, adopted today in Brussels, the committee said “more effective measures” are needed, in order to reach a goal of “no fatalities”. Mandatory safety standards for new cars sold on the European […]
The European Transport Safety Lecture 2017 Artificial Intelligence: The consequences for society and transport safety Presented by the Dutch Safety Board Pulchri Studio, Lange Voorhout 15, The Hague – 21 September 2017 – 15:45-19:00 Organised by the Dutch Safety Board, the European Transport Safety Council’s 19th European Transport Safety Lecture addressed artificial intelligence and related future developments. Professor dr. A. E. (Gusz) Eiben gave an insight into technological developments in the field of artificial intelligence and the effects on our society and transport safety. Following the […]
Austria Trend Hotel, Dunajska cesta 154, 1000 Ljubljana, 23 June 2017, 10.00-17.00 Slovenian Traffic Safety Agency and European Transport Safety Council together had a pleasure to hold an experts’ conference – European approach towards better road safety: safe roads, safe vehicles and safe infrastructure. The conference gathered ministers, decision makers, police, representative from national authorities, road safety experts, NGOs and other road safety stakeholders. Opportunities to improve road safety in Slovenia were discussed. Click here to download the agenda. Presentations Road Safety Performance Index – Slovenia within the […]
Norway House, Rue Archimède 17, 1000 Brussels, 20 June 2017, 13.30-18.30 The EU has set a target to halve road deaths by 2020. Which countries are on track, and which are playing catch-up? At the 2017 PIN conference, ETSC launched its latest Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) annual report looking at why some countries are still making progress on road safety and some are going in reverse. We also highlighted two areas where action is needed to ensure future progress: work-related road safety and reducing deaths […]
A coalition of industry, NGOs, consumer groups and cities are calling on the European Commission to urgently bring forward new minimum safety standards for new cars, vans and trucks, after years of delays. The European Commission is expected to announce a new package of transport legislation next week, the groups are calling for an announcement on updates to vehicle safety regulations to be included. The letter from groups including the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA), the European Cyclists Federation (ECF), POLIS, the European […]
26,300 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2015 compared to 25,970 in 2014, representing an increase of 1% and the second consecutive poor year for road safety. In 2014, more than 135,000 people were recorded as seriously injured. However, the long term safety trend has been positive, especially so for car occupants who have benefited more than other road users from road safety measures adopted over the past decade. The figures of the past years would have been significantly higher had it […]
Ministers of transport from the 28 EU countries have backed a range of measures to reduce deaths and serious injuries linked to speeding in a declaration issued at an informal meeting in Malta in March. In the ‘Valetta Declaration on Road Safety’, ministers undertake to “expand and integrate reduced speed limits such as 30km/h, into high risk areas” and call on the European Commission to accelerate work on new vehicle safety requirements which were last updated in 2009. The declaration also calls for technologies […]
By Antonio Avenoso, ETSC Executive Director It’s done. A defining moment in the history of the European Union took place earlier this month. No, not the UK’s Article 50 letter, nor Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the first round of the French presidential election. On 25 April, EU member states approved a final deal to end mobile phone roaming charges from June this year. Could this small victory for consumers signal the start of a new chapter for the EU? So often seen as technocratic […]