Only one-in-10 new vans feature life-saving tech
Just one-in-10 new vans on sale today features lifesaving technology that is set to become mandatory across all cars and vans by 2022, according to analysis by What Car? Vans.
Van fatalities have dropped by 38 per cent since 2007 against a 24 per cent rise in the number of registered vans on the road, but the findings show there is still plenty of room for improvement.
While some van manufacturers are fitting important safety features, such as Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) to its vehicles, 88 per cent of all vans on sale in the UK today do not meet any of the upcoming European Commission proposed safety standards.
What Car? Vans analysed every van derivative on sale in the UK and while many top-of-the range examples come fitted with multiple safety features as standard, lower specification models typically do without the potentially life-saving technologies.
The European Commission has proposed to make eight safety technologies mandatory across new cars and vans by 2022. These include driver drowsiness and distraction alerts, intelligent speed assistance, reversing cameras or sensors, data recorder in case of an accident, lane-keep assistance, advanced emergency braking, and crash-test improved safety belts.
What Car’s analysis found just 12 per cent of all new vans on sale have one of the eight mandatory safety technologies as standard, while only one in five vans come with at least one of the eight as an optional extra.
Jim Holder, editorial director of What Car? Vans, said: “There are more than four million vans on the road today. Van drivers shouldn’t be waiting for legislation to come into force to have access to the latest safety tech as standard. Though the industry has made strides in recent years, it clearly still has a lot more work to do.”
