Road safety campaigners urge Labour to adopt controversial EU safety rules

Richard Aucock, Contributor
Wed, 31 Jul 2024

A group of UK road safety organisations is urging the new Labour government to adopt EU regulations that mandate the fitment of in-car safety tech such as intelligent speed assistance and driver drowsiness detection gadgets.

That's despite a recent report showing that 4 in 10 drivers admitting they turn off such ‘annoying’ systems.

The technology is part of the European General Safety Regulation (GSR2), which was implemented across Europe two years ago.

The organisations want the government to adopt GSR2 updates to the existing GB Type Approval Scheme.

Brake and AXA UK wrote the consensus letter to new transport secretary Louise Haigh MP, It has been signed by more than 50 other organisations including the AA, RAC and Honda.

Making the new EU safety tech regulations mandatory in the UK would play a significant role in improving road safety, the letter reads. This would help prevent crashes and protect drivers and their passengers, as well as other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

With more than 30,000 people killed or seriously injured on UK roads every year, it calculates the economic cost of road harm totals £43.5bn every year.

By adopting the full package of new tech measures, more than 1700 deaths and 15,000 serious injuries could be prevented over the next 16 years, saving £7bn in health costs.

Brake and AXA UK say they carried out research last year that showed almost 2 in 3 drivers are willing to pay more for safety features that would protect them and their passengers.

More than 2 in 3 added that intelligent speed assistance, advanced emergency braking and driver drowsiness detection should be mandatory for all new vehicles in the UK.

The request to adopt GSR2 by updating already-existing legislation "is a straightforward, effective way to save hundreds of lives and many thousands of serious injuries from road crashes," says Brake CEO Ross Moorlock.

"The UK played a significant role in the development of the vehicle General Safety Regulation when it was part of the EU. Now we are calling for recommendations that we have already made a commitment to. This is simple legislation to pass, too – all that is required is a signature," adds Moorlock.

Earlier this year, a survey found that less than 1 in 5 new car buyers now check Euro NCAP safety ratings. This is despite the organisation becoming ever-more rigorous by insisting on the new safety tech found in GSR2 in order to award a five-star score.

Ask HJ

What are the insurance implications of switching off driver safety systems?

I have just test driven a new car and was driven to distraction by all the new driver safety warnings/aids as I drove (safely) along. The lane keeping option was particularly frustrating and tried to stop me placing the car where I wanted to be - particularly when overtaking cyclists. The sales person stopped the car and disabled them all in one of the menus and the car then behaved. I was told this switch off procedure has to be done each time the car was started and couldn’t be added to the driver profile. My question is what is the insurance ramifications of doing this - if I disable everything will I still have my full insurance cover?

The majority of safety systems installed on new vehicles are mandated by European law, and many of them have the facility to be overridden by the driver or disabled on a temporary basis. Whether disabling these systems could invalidate your insurance would depend on the individual insurer, so we would suggest reading the terms and conditions of your policy in detail.

Answered by David Ross

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