Vehicle and road construction rules to improve safety

5 March 2015

New vehicle technologies and extension of EU infrastructure safety rules could prevent thousands of collisions on motorways

New safety technologies could play a major role in bringing the numbers killed on European motorways down, according to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), authors of a new report published today.

The new analysis of developments in motorway safety shows that, despite recent progress, around 1900 were killed on motorways in the EU in 2013.

The report cites figures from several countries showing that up to 60% of those killed in motorway collisions were not wearing a seatbelt. The authors call on the EU to require the mandatory installation of intelligent seat belt reminder systems (SBR) for all passenger seats in new cars. Currently only driver seats are required to be fitted with an SBR.

The EU is currently undertaking a review of the safety requirements that all new vehicles sold in Europe must comply with. A new proposal is expected later this year; the rules were last updated in 2009.