Europe’s new safety rules to cut crashes

A new plan will help boost road safety in Europe, with the rules governing cars and trucks being revised. The move comes following pressure from campaigning groups pushing vehicle manufacturers to equip their products with new safety systems. This move is intended to boost overall vehicle safety and cut casualties and road deaths across the EU. The draft policy document for the move has outlined a series of initiatives to be adopted this year. This will includes changes to the current vehicle safety regulat
May 26, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
A new plan will help boost road safety in Europe, with the rules governing cars and trucks being revised. The move comes following pressure from campaigning groups pushing vehicle manufacturers to equip their products with new safety systems. This move is intended to boost overall vehicle safety and cut casualties and road deaths across the EU.


The draft policy document for the move has outlined a series of initiatives to be adopted this year. This will includes changes to the current vehicle safety regulations, which have been in place since 2009.

Road safety gains in the EU have been sluggish and have not kept pace with the aim to halve road deaths in the period from 2010 to 2020. It is hoped that this new plan will bring road safety improvements back on track. Although the 25,500 road deaths in the EU during 2016 were 2% fewer than that of the previous year, far greater safety improvements need to be achieved.

One technical solution thought to offer major benefits will be introduction of cameras and detection equipment to heavy trucks in a bid to minimise blind spots. These systems would reduce the risks for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Other safety systems being suggested include intelligent speed assistance and autonomous emergency braking.

The plans could also see car owners having to pay charges based on the CO2 emissions the vehicles produce.

Related Content

  • ADAS goes mainstream in Europe says Frost & Sullivan
    March 21, 2012
    Providing sophisticated advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like driver monitoring system, lane departure warning, intelligent headlamp control and traffic sign recognition to compact cars such as the Ford Focus or Citroen C4 has helped to bring down driver assistance systems from high-end cars to mass-volume compact cars.
    Read More
  • EU must do more to cut car occupant deaths, say transport safety campaigners
    April 25, 2014
    Transport safety campaigners are calling on the European Union to accelerate progress on reducing the number of people killed in cars annually in the EU, as new research shows 12,345 car occupants died in 2012. The report into trends in car occupant safety, published today (29 April 2014) by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), claims that 900 lives could be saved every year in the EU if car manufacturers were required to fit seat-belt reminder sensors to front and rear passenger seats to help prev
    Read More
  • UK eyes e-scooter design regulations
    February 14, 2025
    A report from TRL and WMG - Warwick Manufacturing Group - recommends technical requirements for e-scooters to improve their safety and ensure they are as inclusive and sustainable as possible.
    Read More
  • UN sets global target for road safety
    October 21, 2015
    The UN has set a global benchmark for reducing traffic fatalities on the world’s road network. Data shows that every year, almost 1.3 million people are killed in road crashes around the globe, according to information gathered by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In a bid to tackle this major problem, world leaders recently vowed to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020. This target was agreed at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York.
    Read More

Highlighted Content