Fuente: © European Parliament
http://www.europarl.eu.int/

EU: Better protection for pedestrians and cyclists to be introduced more quickly

/noticias.info/ Plans to reduce the number of pedestrians and cyclists injured on Europe's roads by introducing tougher standards on the safety of motor vehicles were adopted by MEPs in a first-reading report. Each year 8,000 pedestrians and cyclists are killed and 300,000 injured across the EU. MEPs endorsed a compromise already reached between Parliament and Council negotiators.
A new EU regulation seeks to reduce these figures by laying down stricter safety requirements to be observed by manufacturers of cars, SUVs and light goods vehicles. The regulation replaces the Directive 2005/66/EC and the Directive 2003/102/EC, some of whose requirements have now been deemed by an independent study not to be feasible.

The new standards relate essentially to a number of performance tests that vehicles and frontal protection systems are required to pass, and the compulsory introduction of brake assistance systems. Differentiated timetables for the introduction of these standards will apply to "new vehicles" (new cars made under an existing design) and "new vehicle types" (cars made under new, not yet existent, designs).

Under the agreement struck with the Council, most of the amendments to the Commission text adopted by the EP(rapporteur: Francesco Ferrari, ALDE, IT) have been accepted. In particular, MEPs have successfully pushed for the new requirements to be introduced more quickly than the Commission had proposed.

The main points covered by the agreement are as follows:

- The compulsory introduction of brake-assist systems (BAS) and the performance tests that cars have to pass in order to increase pedestrian protection (passive safety measures) will be introduced between 9 and 15 months earlier than the Commission is proposing. In addition, thanks to MEPs, no time distinction is to be allowed between lighter and heavier cars as far as the introduction of BAS is concerned. Under the Commission's proposal, manufacturers of certain types of SUV would have had more time to comply.

- Frontal protection systems (FPS), better known as bull bars, will have to pass the same performance tests as the vehicles on which they are intended to be installed.

- With regard to collision avoidance systems (for example, future technology such as infra-red systems that can identify pedestrians and other obstacles and avoid collisions with them more reliably than the car driver), it was agreed that once any such a system is developed, the EU co-legislators (EP and Council) will have the right to assess the effective potential of this active safety measure, and that there will be no automatic trade-off between passive safety requirements and anti-collision systems. notas_de_prensa_archivo