EU LEGISLATION
42


People power  


Legislation is tasking vehicle manufacturers with designing cars and vans that are more pedestrian-friendly in an effort to reduce accident tolls. Ashley Martin reports



“About 8,000 pedestrians and cyclists are killed and a further 300,000 injured in the European Community each year as a result of road accidents”
About 8,000 pedestrians and cyclists are killed and a further 300,000 injured in the European Community each year as a result of road accidents.

These collisions account for about 12% of total road accidents and about 15% of the total number of road-related deaths in the Community. The total sum of pedestrian casualties plus the number of cyclists and motorcyclists killed in collisions with vehicles (6% and 5% respectively) exceeds 26% of the total number of deaths and about 25% of the injured.

Earlier this year the European Commission published a draft Directive relating to the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users in the event of a collision with a motor vehicle. It is estimated that pedestrian-friendly car designs could avoid up to 2,000 pedestrian and cyclist deaths in the European Union annually.

For decades, both the EC and, more recently, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, based in Geneva, have been working behind the scenes and holding numerous meetings with vehicle manufacturers, government ministers and other interested parties to introduce pedestrian protection measures.

The Directive covers the phased introduction from 2005 of vehicle tests concerning pedestrian protection against head and leg injuries. However, given the amount of talking that has already taken place, no-one in Brussels is taking any bets that the tests – the pedestrian equivalent of the Euro NCAP crash test programme – will be in place by that date.

However, in the build-up to the introduction of the pedestrian protection tests – either in 2005 or at a future date – car makers through the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), which also covers American vehicles sold in the EC, and the equivalent Japanese and Korean trade associations, have made their own voluntary commitment.

That commitment has already seen manufacturers agreeing not to install rigid bull bars as original equipment on new motor vehicles, nor to sell them as parts. And, from 1 July 2004, all new motor vehicles will be fitted with anti-lock braking systems (ABS) as standard. On many superminis and lower-medium sector cars, ABS continues to be an optional extra.The commitment also includes the gradual introduction of in-car information and communication technology to improve active safety.

The manufacturers’ commitment, when first announced, was also to have included the standard fitting of daytime running lights on all new vehicles from October this year. But that measure has been postponed due to different national laws in place governing the daytime use of headlights and the initiative having an impact on vehicle operating costs. It is estimated that fuel consumption will increase by 1-1.5% with headlights operating during the day and light bulbs will have to be replaced more frequently. When the manufacturers announced their commitment, the ACEA said: “This acceptance demonstrates that the EU Commission and the auto industry can work together on highly complex and technical issues to make significant improvements in real world safety.

“By indicating their readiness to take such a commitment, European manufacturers want to show that they are not only considering the satisfaction of the drivers by offering unique vehicles in terms of comfort, design and safety of the occupant, but also by addressing the broader requests of road users. Safety is a major concern of European car manufacturers.”

The manufacturers also agreed to the pedestrian crash protection tests, which, if target dates are achieved, will see:

• From 1 July 2005 new vehicles must comply with two tests concerning protection against head and leg injuries
• In a second phase, starting in 2010, new vehicles will have to pass four tests of increased severity – two tests for head injuries and two tests for leg injuries
• Within five years, all new vehicles will have to meet the test requirements

The tests will be designed to protect children from head injuries suffered when they come into contact with vehicle bonnets, and adults from head injuries when they come into contact with windscreens. Vehicles will undergo further tests to ensure pedestrians and cyclists’ lower legs are protected in the event of colliding with vehicle bumpers and bonnets.

Statistics show that most pedestrian accident victims are children aged five to nine years old and adults over 60 years old. In the construction of vehicles, the major sources of adult head injuries are the top surface of the bonnet/wing, the windscreen area and the A-pillars; for child injuries it is the bonnet/wing; and for adult leg injuries it is the front bumper. Head protection tests will be conducted at impact speeds of 35 km/h and leg protection tests at 40 km/h with the EC saying that most pedestrian/cyclist accidents take place in urban areas at “relatively low speeds”.

Effectively, the tests will mean that manufacturers will have to adopt design features on cars and light vans such as less aggressive front ends that can yield and deform on impact with pedestrians and cyclists so injuries are minimised. The Directive is sympathetic to manufacturers, saying: “Although compliance with these technical provisions will necessitate substantial changes in vehicle design, the provided lead-in time and the introduction in two phases means that these can be made during the development of new vehicles rather than introducing costly changes to vehicles already in production.”

However, the timing of the introduction of the new pedestrian protection tests is conditional upon a feasibility study to be presented before 1 July next year. The study will reflect new technological developments that may impact on the make-up of the proposed tests.

As a consequence, the draft Directive says: “Should the feasibility assessment show that these alternative measures have at least equal protective effects the Commission shall consider relevant proposals to amend this directive.”
The tests will, says the Directive, contribute significantly to establishing a high level of protection in the context of the international harmonisation legislation that is being promoted by UN/ECE. With the inclusion of pedestrian protection tests in the Euro NCAP crash test programme it was hoped that manufacturers would move quickly to make vehicles more pedestrian-friendly.

“The tests will mean that manufacturers will have to adopt design features such as less aggressive front ends so injuries to pedestrians are minimised”
However, only four cars – the Honda Civic, Honda CR-V, Volkswagen Touran and MG TF – have achieved a three star rating. The top rating is four stars. The tests are carried out to replicate accidents involving child and adult pedestrians where impacts occur at 40 km/h. Impact sites are then assessed and rated fair, weak and poor. The Civic was the first car to achieve a three-star rating in 2001 and, at the time, Max Mosley, Euro NCAP chairman and FIA Foundation president, said: “For the first time in the history of Euro NCAP, it’s clear that a manufacturer has designed a car that genuinely balances the safety needs of both occupants and pedestrians. This clearly demonstrates what car designers can do to improve the safety of vulnerable road users.”

However, almost two years later, Transport Minister David Jamieson said: “Pedestrian rating scores of vehicles are still disappointing. . . Manufacturers are to be congratulated on their results for occupant protection, however, I would like to see manufacturers doing more on the important issue of pedestrian protection.”

Frank van West, technical director of the FIA Foundation, which oversees the Euro NCAP programme, and who has been involved in road safety at a European level for more than 25 years, says: “There is still a long way to go with the draft Directive before it becomes legislation. It is legislation that is required to force the manufacturers to take action.
“Vehicle manufacturers are reluctant to invest money to improve pedestrian safety. The results from the Euro NCAP tests are poor, with the exception of some brands. The next significant step is the results of the feasibility study. Its finding will decide whether the directive comes into effect in 2005 or is further delayed.”

Meanwhile, the UN/ECE is working towards the world harmonisation of vehicle regulations across a range of technical issues. A raft of working parties have been established to investigate harmonisation across areas such as vehicle noise, lighting and light signalling, pollution and energy, brakes and running gear, general safety provisions and passive safety.

The World Forum for the Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations and its working party on passive safety provisions has published test proposals in line with the Directive aimed at the uniform construction of the front of motor vehicles by manufacturers.


Bosch brings ABS to the masses
“Initially an optional extra for luxury cars, ABS is now fitted to two out of every three cars worldwide”
Today, 90% of cars produced have ABS fitted as standard and next year it will be 100% of new cars, but 25 years ago anti-lock braking was a novelty.

This year, ABS inventor Bosch celebrates 25 years of safer brakes and 2004 marks the year when ABS will have gone from novelty to norm as, from 1 July, all new cars sold in the European Union will be fitted with the safety technology as standard.
Bosch has also just delivered its 100,000,000th brake control system with the ABS anti-locking function, which prevents the wheels from locking under hard braking, leaving the driver in control to steer safely around obstacles. Braking distance is also reduced in most cases.


This year, Bosch plans to manufacture 14,000,000 brake control systems, thus making it the world’s leading manufacturer
This year, Bosch plans to manufacture 14,000,000 brake control systems, thus making it the world’s leading manufacturer. Although Bosch registered a patent for a “mechanism to prevent locking of the wheels of a motor vehicle” in 1936, all the early designs shared the same faults. Therefore, it was not until digital technology became available in the 1970s that a reliable ABS system could be developed. In 1978, the second generation of Bosch’s ABS – ABS 2 – began to be fitted as optional equipment, at first in Mercedes- Benz S-Class cars and soon afterwards in BMW 7-Series models.

Initially an optional extra for luxury cars, ABS is now fitted to two out of every three cars worldwide. In the early days, ABS was the only function performed by the brake control systems, but today ABS is often combined with traction control, which prevents wheel spin, or ESP (Electronic Stability Programme), which improves vehicle stability.
And, over the next few years, Bosch will add a number of extra functions to the brake control system to offer increased driver safety. ESP, says Bosch, has already established itself as a proven safety system, with studies carried out by both DaimlerChrysler and Toyota demonstrating a significantly lower risk of accidents for cars with ESP technology.

Therefore, the company’s major focus will be ESP, with Bosch engineers concentrating their development work on building new functions into the system and on further reducing noise generated by the controls.

For example, the “Hill Hold Control” function is already being fitted in some vehicles. It prevents the vehicle from rolling back unintentionally on hill starts. Bosch expects it to be fitted as standard in many medium-sized and compact cars during the next few years. Further development on ESP will add such functions as “Brake Disc Wiping” and “Electronic Brake Prefill”. The former is useful in heavy rain as it brings the brake pads into light contact with the brake discs at regular intervals, in order to remove the film of moisture.

The latter reacts when the driver pulls their foot off the accelerator pedal suddenly. It places the brake pads immediately in contact with the discs in order to reduce the stopping distance if emergency braking is undertaken. These functions are included in ESPlus, the upgraded version of ESP, which will probably go into mass production in 2005. For executive and luxury cars, Bosch will offer the highest level of development of the new range of products – with extra functions such as “Soft Stop” and “Stop and Go”.

“Soft Stop” makes for completely smooth stopping by automatically reducing the braking pressure just before the vehicle comes to a halt; while “Stop and Go” supplements automatic distance and speed regulation systems such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with convenient automatic braking until the vehicle is at rest, meaning a vehicle equipped with ACC can automatically slow down and accelerate again in stop-start traffic.

Bosch expects the launch date for a new version of its Electrohydraulic Brake (EHB) – which is needed for these functions – to be in 2006. The coming years will also see enhanced systems reaching the market in which ESP is an important component.
 

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