Up to twelve new security equipment will mandatory from 2021, as part of the measures being imposed by the European Union to reduce road fatalities. The list covers a large number of security sections, both active and passive, ranging from reversing camera, up to the pre-installation of a alcohol detection for the driver.
As the statistics indicate, since 2010 road deaths in the European Union have been reduced by 20%. However, the European Commission warns that there has been no major reduction since 2013 and they expect these new measures to save the lives of 10.500 people and prevent 59.600 serious injuries by 2030.
The latest data places the victims of road accidents at 26.000 a year adding all the member countries of the EU. Of which 1.200 deaths take place in Spain, which ranks fourth in the ranking of countries with the lowest mortality rate, behind the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands.
List of mandatory safety equipment
Some equipment included in the new list is already included as extras in several of the cars currently manufactured. However, their implementation in the EU as mandatory constitutes the first standards update minimum safety standards for vehicles that have been since 2009.
Smarter driving aids
Of all of them, the driving aids that will be mandatory from 2021 will be: a intelligent cruise speed assistantanother for him lane keeping, emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, And a reversing camera or, failing that, a detection system. Some of them already necessary to obtain the five stars in the tests of Euro NCAP.
Better occupant protection
Apart from automatisms and aids, among the 12 safety equipment there will also be a series of measures that reinforce the protection of the people involved in an accident. These are: a protection bar for occupants in side impacts, seat belts with upgraded pretensioners and enlargement of the impact zone of the head for pedestrians and cyclists hit.
more attentive drivers
To minimize the oversights or lack of attention that the driver may have, it will also be mandatory to include a drowsiness detector or loss of attention, a recognition system and distraction prevention and a emergency stop sign.
A breathalyzer in the car and a 'black box'
But among all the modifications that cars will have to carry from 2021, there are two that are especially striking: the pre-installation of an alcohol interlock system and an accident data recorder. The primera, so that the authorities can install a breathalyser, which blocks the car if it detects that the driver has been drinking; and the second, what is a equivalent to the black box of airplanes which is capable of recording various data from the car to know the conditions of an accident, such as speed.