Car manufacturers urged to bring in safety measures to cut road carnage

THOUSANDS of deaths and serious injuries could be prevented each year on Europe’s roads if car manufacturers brought in safety changes ahead of legislation, a report published yesterday revealed.

Prepared for the European Commission, the study showed that 12,400 cyclists and pedestrians are killed and 296,000 seriously injured annually within the EU.

“The killing has got to stop now,” said Claes Tingvall, the chairman of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) which publishes crash-test results.

The report showed that the road casualty figures were worse than feared.

It said that 1,700 fatalities and 42,000 serious injuries to pedestrians and cyclists could be prevented each year if manufacturers produced cars that were compliant with the latest requirements.

Legislation, forcing the changes to be made, is being phased in, but will not be fully in force until 2010 or beyond. And discussions are taking place to make the new laws less onerous on car makers. Prof Tingvall said: “The killing has got to stop, not tomorrow, not in 2010, but now.

“For every day that we lose, five people will die and 115 will be seriously injured. Car manufacturers have had the ability to save this pain and suffering for years, but have chosen not to do so.”

The changes called for include the repositioning and restructuring of the front bumper to absorb energy and reduce the chances of leg breakage, the “softening” of the leading edge of the bonnet and less rigid reinforcement under the bonnet. Yesterday’s conference featured the shocking story of a driver who killed a child on her way to school.

The woman of 50, a teacher from Belgium, was not drunk, nor speeding, but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a young child ran out in to the road.

She said: “I didn’t realise that anything was wrong - until I saw flesh on the windscreen. I went to the child - and held her head. She was beautiful.

“A few minutes later I heard a woman screaming in the distance,” she said. “Instinctively I knew it was the mother arriving on the scene.

“For those awful moments she wasn’t just her child - she was our child.”