Government to mandate 18 vehicle safety technologies
The government has announced that it will make 18 vehicle safety technologies mandatory on mass-produced vehicles in Great Britain.
This follows a public consultation launched on 7 January.
The move is intended to improve road safety and reduce the number of casualties on UK roads and follows the launch of the Road Safety Strategy earlier this year, which aims to reduce serious injury and deaths on UK roads by 65% by 2035.
The government said: “While GB has a strong road safety record, progress in reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured has slowed. Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and e-scooter users, are disproportionately affected.
“Collision data show that human factors, including distraction and excessive speed, remain major contributors to road casualties. Evidence also suggests that advanced vehicle safety technologies can help prevent collisions, reduce their severity and better protect vulnerable road users.”
The technologies include:
- advanced distraction warning
- blind spot information system
- drowsiness and attention warning
- direct vision
- emergency braking for cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles
- event data recorder
- emergency lane keeping system
- emergency stop signal
- frontal full-width impact
- frontal offset impact
- intelligent speed assistance
- moving off information system
- pole side impact
- pedestrian windscreen impact
- reversing motion awareness
- tyre pressure monitoring system.
Broad support
The government concluded: “The government has considered the consultation responses and supporting evidence. Overall, respondents expressed broad support for mandating vehicle safety technologies through the GB type approval framework, particularly where the technologies were seen as established and likely to improve road safety.
“The government intends to proceed with the package of 18 proven vehicle safety technologies for mass-produced vehicles under GB type approval.
“The initial scope of the mandate will remain focused on mass-produced vehicles under GB type approval. This reflects support for a proportionate starting point that captures the largest part of the market, where many vehicles already comply, while avoiding disproportionate impacts on lower-volume manufacturers, converters and businesses using other approval routes.”
