Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Saving lives: Boosting car safety in the EU – Reporting on the monitoring and assessment of advanced vehicle safety features, their cost effectiveness and feasibility for the review of the regulations on general vehicle safety and on the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users

Road safety in the EU has improved significantly over the past decades, thanks to strong and effective action taken at EU, national and local level to address road user behaviour, vehicles and infrastructure. As a result the EU roads are the safest world-wide. This increased safety can to a large extent be attributed to EU legislative requirements on safety of vehicles that have been introduced over these years as part of the EU policy on road safety.

These vehicle safety requirements were also a boost to European research, development and innovation: when industry was faced with more ambitious requirements it found the ways to respond with innovative technical solutions. Given that the EU was the first mover in most of these requirements, most solutions were developed in Europe and quality jobs were created here to respond to the challenges. In fact the motor vehicle industry is the main provider of private R&D in the EU, and has been setting the standards globally.

The automotive industry continues to innovate and the regulatory requirements need to be re-visited, with the aim to ensure that the EU continues to be in the fore-front of international developments, while continuing the work for saving lives. The impressive progress in the reduction of car accidents has slowed down lately, while the cost of road fatalities and injuries is estimated to be at least €100 billion a year and hundreds of families continue to be shattered every year due to road accidents.

In this Report the European Commission presents the findings of its analysis concerning a range of new safety measures. It proposes a way forward, with due consideration of the feasibility and cost effectiveness of the proposed measures. The detailed explanation of the measures is included in the Commission Staff Working Document annexed to this Report. These are the basis for a large public debate to which the European Commission invites all stakeholders.

ESO: Background information: Road safety: new statistics call for fresh efforts to save lives on EU roads http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-road-safety-new-statistics-call-for-fresh-efforts-to-save-lives-on-eu-roads/

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)431: Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the report http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:431:FIN

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