The EU has to act quickly to cut road deaths by more than 30 per cent by the end of next year, having pledged to halve the number of deaths between 2001 and 2010.
With 18 months to go, the number of deaths by the end of 2008 had been reduced by 27 per cent, largely by adopting electronic safety technology, notably Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS).
ADAS technologies include ultrasonic and camera park-assist, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and blind-spot detection systems.
In 2001, then number of deaths on European roads was 40,000. Last year it was 29,200. To get to the goal of 20,000 in 2010, it will have to radically accelerate the pace of adoption of safety measures.
"Given the drawn-out E.U. decision process, the lengthy automotive product life cycle, and the fact that the only ADAS safety technology currently mandated is Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Europe is unlikely to reach this target," says Jeremy Carlson, researcher for ADAS and EMEA automotive at iSuppli.
The European Road Safety Charter all 27 EU member states including more than 1,100 public authorities and private entities. Among the Charter's efforts is encouraging the adoption of proven ADAS safety technologies.
'Unfortunately', says iSuppli, 'many safety technologies such as adaptive cruise control and blind-spot detection systems have not had the luxury of time and widespread availability to sufficiently prove they can reduce accidents or deaths'.
So the ADAS solutions are relegated to research while seat belts and airbags are priorities for legislation.
Currently, the European Road Safety Charter is pursuing a requirement for seat-belt reminders in passenger vehicles and now requires that all heavy goods vehicles be equipped with blind-spot mirrors on the passenger side to help protect bikers and pedestrians.
Side-object detection systems show the EC's recognition of the importance of blind-spot safety and could lead to the consideration of radar- and camera-based detection and recognition systems in the future.
The EC also has nominated driver monitoring, collision avoidance and mitigation, pedestrian protection, and visibility systems such as night vision as potential candidates for worthwhile research.
EU initiatives involve the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The proposals could also lead to more navigation-enabled ADAS systems that benefit from mindfully-designed roadways.
The EC's Intelligent Car Initiative formed in February 2006 aims to use intelligent technologies to make cars smarter, safer and cleaner.
The Intelligent Car Initiative includes the eSafety Forum, which aims to accelerate the development and deployment of intelligent information and communication technologies by building consensus among industry stakeholders.
The eSafety Forum is researching collision avoidance aimed at evolving current collision mitigation systems into full-collision-avoidance systems with a focus on reducing costs for deployment in small- and medium-sized cars. However it provides no specific action to reach that goal