EU Member States give a mixed response to road safety proposals - Safety Monitor 113 - December 2018

Safety Monitor Transport safety news from ETSC

Latest Publications Using Telematics in Professional Fleet Vehicles October 2018 25 Years of the European Transport Safety Council October 2018 Briefing: EU Strategy for Automated Mobility October 2018 Joint Statement on Revision of the Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive 2008/96 September 2018   Upcoming Events 24/1 European Traffic Education Seminar Madrid 31/1 Driving for Work – Risk Management Dublin EU Member States give a mixed response to road safety proposals Industry and transport ministers from the 28 EU Member States have set out their official responses to three key pieces of road safety legislation. ETSC welcomed the position of the Council of the EU on new vehicle safety measures but is worried that new rules on road infrastructure safety management and revised professional driver working hour regulations will be weakened unless the European Parliament argues successfully for a stronger position in upcoming negotiations. Read more... All Ford Focuses sold in Europe will feature Intelligent Speed Assistance The new version of the Ford Focus, one of Europe’s most popular cars, will feature Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) as standard, it has emerged. The system, which Ford launched three years ago on its high–end S-Max and Galaxy models, will now be installed on every Ford Focus, which currently sells for as little as EUR 16,500 in Belgium. Read more...   134 French towns and cities to receive “Safer Town” label One year after the official launch of its "Ville Prudente" (Safer Towns) label, ETSC’s French member Association Prévention Routière and its partners have unveiled the names of the first 134 municipalities to receive the label. Read more...   Environmental and road safety groups announce the safest and greenest German federal states Baden-Württemberg, Thüringen and Rheinland-Pfalz are the leaders in sustainable mobility among the federal states of Germany, according to an analysis carried out for the German pro-rail alliance, Friends of the Earth and DVR – ETSC’s German member. The "Federal State Index Mobility & Environment 2018/19" looked at official statistics and the direction of transport policies in all 16 German federal states. Read more...   New WHO report highlights insufficient progress to tackle lack of safety on the world’s roads A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that road traffic deaths continue to rise, and now stand at an annual 1.35 million fatalities. The WHO Global status report on road safety 2018 says road traffic injuries are now the leading killer of children and young people aged 5-29 years. Read more...   ETSC’s #LastNightTheEUSavedMyLife campaign builds support from industry and across the political spectrum Government ministers from five EU member states, together with MEPs from the largest political groups in the European Parliament have lent their support to ETSC’s campaign for the EU to back the full range of vehicle safety measures proposed by the European Commission in May. Read more...   Spain to lower urban and rural speed limits The Spanish Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska has announced that the country’s directorate general for road traffic is working on a plan to reduce urban speed limits to a default of 30 km/h and is also planning to lower the 100 km/h out of town limit. Read more...   Volkswagen hit by two safety scandals The Volkswagen group sold vehicles in Europe that did not have valid type approval certificates according to an investigation by Der Spiegel, a German newspaper. Meanwhile Which?, a British consumer organisation, has strongly criticised the way the company communicated with new and existing owners about a potentially dangerous seatbelt fault affecting the VW Polo, Seat Ibiza and Seat Arona models. Read more...   Experts discuss ways to improve emergency response after road collisions ETSC gathered experts from several EU countries at an event in Madrid last month to discuss best practice in emergency response after road collisions. Access to collision sites, extraction techniques and the structure of emergency response systems were covered in an event that brought together emergency response specialists from Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Read more...   Major UK study examines impact of sign-only 20 mph zones The British Department for Transport has published a major research study on the impact of 20mph zones. It assesses the outcomes of introducing 20 mph speed limit schemes (ie reducing speed limits from 30mph to 20mph) in residential areas and town centres. The researchers looked at “signs only” schemes, i.e. without the traffic calming measures of earlier 20mph zones. Read more...