Deal on cards over seatbelts in minibuses

Date: 18/04/1996

CAR safety campaigners are optimistic that experts from the 15 EU member states will finally vote this month to make the fitting of three-point seatbelts compulsory in all minibuses.

But while Commission officials insist that there is no question of giving in to pressure - led by Germany - to water down its proposals, there are signs that they may be flexible over the timetable for introducing the new rules in order to get an agreement.

The proposal to be put to the member states at next week's meeting of the Committee for Adaptation to Technical Progress would make 'three-point' belts obligatory for all new vehicle types from October 1999 and all new minibuses placed on the road from a year later - 12 months later than the Commission proposed initially.

Plans to make lap belts compulsory in coaches have now been virtually agreed.

But vociferous opposition from a group of member states to the minibus plan - under heavy pressure from the manufacturing lobby - has twice delayed a vote on the proposal, with Germany, France, Italy and Spain (supported by Luxembourg, Greece, and Belgium) repeatedly blocking the Commission's efforts to introduce tougher safety standards.

Germany has come forward with a series of alternative proposals, the latest of which would have required only 'two-point' lap belts on the majority of minibus seats.

But the Commission is determined to stick to its guns and hopes that the proposals will be put to a vote without any negotiation on their substance, although there might be some discussion about the starting date.

Both the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and the consumers' organisation BEUC are optimistic that scientific evidence of the need for three-point belts will win the day. They point to the UK - where such belts are already compulsory - as evidence that arguments over cost and technical difficulties do not justify a delay.

But they question why the Commission is not insisting on the same tough standards in its proposals for warning labels on cars about the dangers of placing child restraints in front passenger seats where airbags are fitted.

With at least three baby deaths in the US caused by airbags, ETSC's Jeanne Breen described the issue as “a potential time bomb” in Europe. Consumer tests found that two out of three babies in restraints fitted to front seats would have been killed by inflating airbags.

The committee is expected to vote next week on plans to force car-makers putting forward new vehicles for type approval from October this year to include a label warning drivers of the dangers.

But although the Commission's proposal contains a sample label, it will be left up to the manufacturer to decide which one to use.

Safety campaigners argue manufacturers should be forced to use a label which includes a pictogram and a clear text warning of the dangers, such as the one recommended by the International Standards Organisation.

BEUC's Jim Murray accuses the Commission of failing to take a strong lead on this issue in the face of the support given by a number of member states to an industry-sponsored warning described by ISO as “inadequate and misleading”.

Commission sources stress that the example given in its proposal is neither the ISO model nor that recommended by European car-makers' body ACEA, but a politically neutral one.