MEPs vote in favour of new vehicle safety standards

21 February 2019

We welcome the confirmation that members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) have voted to approve a range of new vehicle safety standards initially proposed by the European Commission in May last year. The measures include new crash testing requirements, mandatory installation of driver assistance systems including Automated Emergency Braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, overridable Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and Emergency Lane Keeping, as well as a new direct vision standard for lorries and buses to enable drivers to have a better view of other road users around their vehicle.

The requirements also include installation of Event Data Recorders, which record critical information on the status of a vehicle in the moments before a collision and, as in the aviation sector, could help crash investigators understand the causes of collisions in order to help prevent them in the future.

Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council, said:

“This legislation represents a major step forward for road safety in Europe, and could save 25,000 lives within fifteen years of coming into force.  But it will only apply to new vehicles.  So it’s incredibly important that a final deal is reached as soon as possible, so cars with these new safety features fitted as standard start driving off production lines sooner rather than later.