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

  • EU road safety plan to cut casualties
    May 23, 2018
    The European Commission has announced a major package of road safety measures. These include new targets, in a bid to cut road deaths and serious injuries in half by 2030. New car safety standards will make life-saving technologies such as Automated Emergency Braking and overridable Intelligent Speed Assistance a standard feature on all new vehicles. At present these features are only available as an option on some models. The Pan-European policing body TISPOL has welcomed this package of measures, which
  • IAM and Brake comment on increased UK road crashes
    September 24, 2015
    Both the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and road safety charity Brake have expressed serious concern over official figures showing increased road deaths in the UK. The Department of Transport’s Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: 2014 Annual Report says there were 1,775 reported road deaths in 2014, an increase of 4% compared with 2013. The IAM has called for a raft of measures to reverse the disappointing increase in numbers of people killed and injured on UK roads. It added the number of people
  • Jamaica’s road safety improvement
    December 4, 2017
    Jamaica is seeing an improvement in road safety, with a reduction in casualty levels. So far in 2017, overall road deaths have been 49 less than in the same period during 2016. The road death toll at the end of 2017 is hoped to be significantly lower than in 2016, itself an improvement over the previous year. During 2016 there were 379 road deaths in Jamaica, compared with 382 in 2015.
  • Future road safety progress may be slow
    March 9, 2018
    Future progress on road safety could be slower than hoped, according to the European Transport Safety Commission (ETSC). It warns that the high profile development of autonomous vehicles could restrain moves to improve road safety around the world. With road deaths killing up to 1.25 million people/year, lowering the casualty rate is seen as a priority. But a much sharper awareness of how to reduce the number of deaths and injuries is required.