Pedestrians to be the focus for safer vehicle fronts
Following dramatic improvements for car occupant safety, European legislators are now making vehicles and accessories safer for pedestrians. From May 2007 Frontal Protection Systems (FPS) will need type approval and will be required to pass strict tests for pedestrian safety which will be impossible for old style metal bull bars to pass. The only qualifying products will then be energy absorbing products which will actually make the vehicles safer. Similar legislation for the vehicles themselves is likely to follow after 2010.
The first UK pedestrian to be killed by a motor vehicle was in 1896, she died after suffering severe head injuries. Some 110 years later, figures from the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) highlight a growing concern for vulnerable road users throughout Europe with more than 900 UK and 12,000 European pedestrians and cyclists killed every year and more than 9,000 and 290,000 respectively seriously injured.
The first product to meet the requirements of the EU directive is a new Endura Frontal Protection System produced by Concept Mouldings which tests show will make many large vehicles safer in the unfortunate event of front-end collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.
Benchmark tests carried out at MIRA (one of Europe’s leading vehicle design, development and certification centres) on 4 x 4s and vans, has proved that with an Endura FPS fitted, the risk of head injury is reduced from over 99 per cent in the worst case down to less than 2 per cent in the head area (nearly a 50 x improvement on the vehicle) and also an 86 per cent improvement in the abdominal area. The Endura FPS showed improvements in all the tests, showing that it would protect pedestrians from the hard parts at the front of vehicles such as the bonnet leading edge, radiator and engine.
“The legislation will be a great breakthrough if it brings forward the fitment of energy absorbing Frontal Protection Systems as it will be many years before vehicles which meet these demanding teats are available,” said Ian Finney, Managing Director of Concept Mouldings.
“One of the great advantages of our Endura brand products (www.endura-fps.com) is that they will soon be available for most common SUV’s, 4 x4’s and vans and can be fitted to current vehicles as an aftermarket item which means we can start saving lives and serious injuries now rather than waiting for a long term legislative development process”.
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For more information contact Selwyn Rowley or Paul Wareham at LMMC on +44 (0)1926 611700 or email selwyn@lmmc.co.uk or paul@lmmc.co.uk.
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