Letter to EP President Tajani – Review of the vehicle safety and pedestrian safety regulations
Dear President,
We understand that the European Commission will present a proposal for the revision of the General Safety (661/2009/EC) and Pedestrian Safety (661/2009/EC) Regulations on 2 May, as part of the third mobility package. In the context of the upcoming European Parliamentary elections, we urge you to ensure the Parliament does its utmost to deliver a strong and timely position on these critical regulations for road safety.
The European Commission reported that over 25,500 people lost their lives on EU roads in 2016 – a figure that has hardly budged in three years. A further 135,000 people are seriously injured each year. It is a devastating human toll but also an important economic one.
Improved minimum vehicle safety standards are absolutely critical to reducing deaths and serious injuries on Europe’s roads. We therefore welcomed the strong position taken by the European Parliament in its Resolution (2017/2085(INI)) in response to the plans outlined by the Commission in the document Saving Lives: Boosting Car Safety in the EU. Consumers may think that all new cars sold on the EU market are as safe as possible because they have to meet EU requirements. But a car that only meets the current legal minimum standards would receive a zero-star rating today from Euro NCAP. While many cost-effective and proven safety technologies are available on the market, have been recognised by programmes such as Euro NCAP and are already delivering real safety benefits, the needed step-change will only come when they are offered as standard, not as an optional extra or only on premium models.
Europe needs to catch up with global developments emerging in the field of vehicle safety. South Korea recently announced that it will require all new passenger vehicles to be fitted with Automated Emergency Braking and Lane Departure Warning systems from January 2019, while India will leapfrog Europe’s current requirements on seatbelt reminders in July 2019.
The swift adoption of ambitious safety standards will therefore help the European automotive industry to maintain their global lead in safety technology. Making driver assistance technologies standard will furthermore help prepare for the safe introduction of automated driving.
EU vehicle safety standards were last updated almost a decade ago. With 70 deaths every single day on our roads, we cannot afford to wait any longer for these long overdue changes.
Yours sincerely,
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 Motor Vehicle Inspection
Committee
Laurianne Krid, Director General
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA)
Region I
Jeannot Mersch, President
FEVR, European Federation of Road Traffic Victims
Ruth Purdie, General Secretary
TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network
Stephen Russell, Secretary General
ANEC, the European consumer voice in
standardisation
Ciaran Simms, President
International Research Council on
Biomechanics of Injury
William Todts, Executive Director
Transport & Environment
Jessica Truong, Executive Director
Towards Zero Foundation
Karen Vancluysen, Secretary General
POLIS
Jean Van Wetter, General Director
Handicap International Belgium
Attachments
In: CLEPA News