Home Menu Search

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.
 

Related news, events and information

Seat Belt Interventions in the News

30 April 2019 – Failure to use seatbelts is a major contributing factor to road fatalities. The use of seatbelts has been one...

12,000 killed in cars in EU in 2012

29 April 2014 – Transport safety campaigners are calling on the European Union to accelerate progress on reducing the number of...

Seat Belt Safety Enhanced

24 August 2018 – As reported by ETSC The EU is set to adopt updated UNECE regulations on seatbelts that will require seatbelt...

New EU vehicle safety standards essential to reducing child road deaths

26 February 2018 – A new report published by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), shows that more than 8,000 children...

Invitation from the European Transport Safety Council

1 September 2015 – This event is kindly hosted by Dieter-Lebrecht Koch MEP. 500 people die on EU roads every week and road...

Call for EU infrastructure safety rules to be extended beyond main motorways

27 September 2018 – Story from the European Transport Safety Council. A coalition of safety groups, traffic police, cyclists,...

MEPs back new road and vehicle safety rules

14 January 2019 – Story from the ETSC. New EU rules covering road infrastructure safety and minimum vehicle safety standards...

Call for urgent action on vehicle safety standards

24 May 2017 – Story from Fleet News. A coalition of industry, NGOs, consumer groups and cities are calling on the European...

Medical fitness rules under scrutiny

23 March 2021 – The current EU approach to assessing whether drivers are medically fit to hold a licence needs substantial...