Skip to main content

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

  • Danger increased on Australia’s roads
    August 22, 2023
    Danger has increased on Australia’s roads
  • European police group TISPOL committed to helping cut road deaths
    April 2, 2015
    In its latest three-year strategic plan, the European Traffic Police Network has reaffirmed its commitment to the European Union’s road death reduction target of 50% by 2020. World Highways reported last month that road deaths fell by just 1% in the EU in 2014, according to data released by the European Commission. There were 25,700 road deaths across all 28 Member States of the EU. The European Commissioner of Transport, Violeta Bulc said at the time that the statistics give some cause for concern. S
  • Safety gains on Europe’s roads with lower KSI rates
    February 19, 2014
    Better road safety is helping to cut KSI rates right across the EC - Mike Woof writes Road safety continues to improve in Europe, with official statistics for 2012 showing a drop in fatalities of 2,661 compared with the figures for 2011. The latest data from Pan-European police body TISPOL shows an encouraging trend towards better road safety. This highlights safety improvements right across the EU. In 2012, a total of 27,700 people were killed in road crashes in the European Union’s 27 member states, eq
  • EU road safety – slight gains
    September 21, 2018
    A slow improvement is being seen on Europe’s roads in terms of safety. In 2017, 25,250 people were killed in road crashes in the EU. This represents a 2% reduction from the road death rate for the EU in 2016. However there is concern that progress with road safety is too slow as the road death rate for the EU has fallen by only 3% in the last four years. Of the 32 countries monitored by the PIN Programme, 22 reduced road deaths in 2017 . The best results were achieved by Estonia with a 32% decrease