Considerations on COM(2003)586 - Use of frontal protection systems on motor vehicles

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dossier COM(2003)586 - Use of frontal protection systems on motor vehicles.
document COM(2003)586 EN
date October 26, 2005
 
table>(1)Systems providing additional frontal protection for motor vehicles have been increasingly used in recent years. Some of these systems constitute a risk to the safety of pedestrians and other road users in the event of a collision. Measures are therefore required in order to safeguard the public against such risks.
(2)Frontal protection systems can be provided as original equipment fitted to a vehicle or marketed as separate technical units. The technical requirements for the type approval of motor vehicles with regard to any frontal protection systems that might be fitted to the vehicle should be harmonised in order to prevent the adoption of requirements that vary from one Member State to another and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market. For the same reasons, it is necessary to harmonise the technical requirements for the type approval of frontal protection systems as separate technical units within the meaning of Council Directive 70/156/EEC of 6 February 1970 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers (3).

(3)It is necessary to control the use of frontal protection systems and to establish the test, construction and installation requirements to be complied with by any frontal protection system either supplied as original equipment fitted to a vehicle or placed on the market as a separate technical unit. Tests should require that frontal protection systems are designed in a way that improves pedestrian safety and reduces the number of injuries.

(4)These requirements should also be regarded in the context of the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users and with reference to Directive 2003/102/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 relating to the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users before and in the event of a collision with a motor vehicle (4). The present Directive should be reviewed in the light of further research and experience gained during the first four years of its application.

(5)This Directive is one of the separate Directives within the framework of the EC type-approval procedure established by Directive 70/156/EEC.

(6)The Commission should monitor the impact of this Directive and report to the European Parliament and the Council. If it is deemed necessary to achieve further improvements in pedestrian protection, the Commission should make proposals to amend this Directive in accordance with technical progress.

(7)It is recognised, however, that certain vehicles included in the scope of this Directive, and to which frontal protection systems may be fitted, will not be subject to Directive 2003/102/EC. For such vehicles it is considered that the upper leg test requirements of this Directive may be technically unfeasible. To facilitate an improvement in pedestrian safety, with respect to head injury, it may be necessary to allow alternative requirements for the upper leg test, for application to those vehicles only, whilst ensuring that the installation of any frontal protection system does not increase the risk of leg injury to pedestrians or other vulnerable road users.

(8)The measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive and for its adaptation to scientific and technical progress should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (5).

(9)Since the objective of this Directive, namely to promote the safety of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users through laying down technical requirements for the type-approval of motor vehicles as regards frontal protection systems, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve this objective.

(10)This Directive is part of the European road safety action programme and may be supplemented by national measures to prohibit or restrict the use of frontal protection systems already on the market before its entry into force.

(11)Directive 70/156/EEC should therefore be amended accordingly,