Intelligent vehicle safety systems/eCall encouraged by European Parliament

Creation date: 12 April 2007

In its mid-term review of the European Road Safety Action Programme, the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism has encouraged the use of intelligent vehicle safety systems and eCall as means to improve European road safety.
 
The mid-term review highlights the progress which has been made in tackling the problem of the number of deaths and injuries on EU roads. It takes into consideration the EC’s White Paper 'European transport policy for 2010: time to decide' (COM(2001)0370) and communication 'Information and Communications Technologies for Safe and Intelligent Vehicles' (COM(2003)0542) among other sources.

In the review, the Parliament notes that the opportunity offered by telematics to reduce the number of fatal accidents in the long term must be considered and large-scale research investment is required.

In addition, the Parliament calls for:

• a higher level of political commitment to road safety in all Member States and EU institutions, as well as industry, organisations and individuals.
• the Commission to recognise the importance of independent pan-European benchmarking assessment programmes in supporting a more uniform application of EU legislation affecting road safety, which stimulates competition among stakeholders responsible for ensuring a safe road environment (i.e. EuroTAP, EuroNCAP).
• the Member States to ensure that incentives cover significant safety features (emergency brake assistants, lane departure warning systems, adaptive cruise control systems, shock absorber control systems, etc.), with the following solutions to receive particular attention: seat belt reminders and advanced restraint systems, Electronic Stability Control (ESC), speed limitation systems, alcohol interlocks, predictive safety systems (emergency brake assistant, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning system, ultrasound blind-spot monitor, shock absorber control system) and eCall

eSafety systems important
The Parliament also noted the importance of telematics and eSafety systems and considers that telematics offers the possibility of eliminating fatal accidents to a very large extent. It calls for intensive research and co-operation between all stakeholders in order to promote the speedy introduction of the most promising technologies.

In addition, it considers that the use of information and communication technologies in connection with road infrastructure is bringing considerable improvements in the management of the trans-European transport networks (TEN-T) and road safety. It calls on the Commission and the Member States to continue their action in this area by setting up a European programme for the deployment of intelligent road traffic management systems.

Moreover, the Parliament calls on the Commission to pay particular attention to the technical safety of vehicles and asks that consideration must be given to further developing the relevant legislation before 2010. It notes that the testing of eSafety systems, a uniform system of annual checks on vehicles over eight years old and special checks on vehicles involved in serious accidents have a particularly important role to play in further improving safety on Europe's roads.

eCall implementation ASAP
eCall received additional mention in the review, with the Parliament calling for Member States to sign the joint statement of intent [eCall Memorandum of Understanding] concerning the eCall system by June 2007. It also stresses that the eCall system has the potential to reduce the accident response time by about 40% in urban areas and about 50% in rural areas and calls on all the Member States to promote its implementation as soon as possible. The Parliament also invites the EC and the Member States to propose measures based on an evaluation of the awareness of the single European emergency call number 112 and implementation of E112 by all Member States in order to improve the situation in the EU.

For more information, please visit http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A6-2006-0449+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN