Millions of rear-view mirrors to be changed in EU trucks
Directive aimed at reducing deaths among pedestrians and cyclists
The European Union wants to improve security of pedestrians and cyclists with a new "mirror directive" affecting heavy goods vehicles.
The proposal for the directive was brought forward in an EU working group. Engineer Juha Valtonen at the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications feels that the chances of implementing the directive appear quite good.
The Commission's proposal would mean that millions of lorries in use for ten years or less would have to have new types of rear-view and side-view mirrors installed, giving the drivers better visibility in areas that now fall into blind spots.
Finland has about 90,000 lorries registered, and the new directive is expected to apply to most of them.
There is already a directive in force from the beginning of this year that has called for better mirrors and other devices that increase the field of vision of lorry drivers. The rule will apply to all new trucks as of next year.
Now the Commission is proposing that the directive would apply retroactively to older heavy vehicles in the whole EU area.
The Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark have already implemented national regulations on the matter.
The proposal breaks new ground. The principle so far has been that if a vehicle meets the standards that were in force when the truck was registered, no new requirements for new equipment may be imposed.
Esko Kärki, an engineer at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, recalls that a similar exception has been passed at least once before - when devices that limit the speed of heavy vehicles were ordered retrofitted into older vehicles.
The Commission calculates that installing new mirrors into lorries would cost EUR 100 to 150 per vehicle, which means that the cost of the measures in the whole EU would be EUR 400-600 million.
Experts say that the move would save an estimated 1,200 lives by 2020.
The directive is part of the EU's traffic safety programme aimed at cutting traffic fatalities in half by 2010.
An estimated 400 people are killed each year in the EU in accidents in which the driver of a heavy vehicle making a right turn is unable to see someone walking or cycling next to the truck.
Most of the victims in such accidents are pedestrians or cyclists, and typical locations of accidents are pedestrian crossings, intersections, and roundabouts.
Pekka Sulander, head of traffic safety at the Finnish Motor Insurers' Centre estimates that about one or two fatal accidents take place in Finland each year, in which a pedestrian or cyclist is in such a blind spot.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 13.11.2006 - TODAY |
 Millions of rear-view mirrors to be changed in EU trucks |
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