e-Safety research has crucial role in reducing EU road fatalities, says Liikanen
European Community research on driver safety and assistance technologies have a crucial role to play in helping to meet the EU target of halving road fatalities in Europe by 2010, according to Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen. Speaking at a high-level meeting on e-safety in Brussels on 25 April, Mr Liikanen said that EU-funded projects on active safety systems and advanced driver assistance technologies could help to meet the goal set out in the EU White Paper on transport policy for 2010 by improving vehicle handling and reducing the consequences of driver error. Almost 95 per cent of road accidents are due to human error. New technologies use intelligent features such as sensors and stability systems to improve interaction between the driver and the vehicle and monitor potential risks in the surrounding environment. Commissioner Liikanen called for improved coordination between Community and national actions in active safety and advanced driver-assistance systems, and an extension of this collaboration to countries outside the EU. International collaboration should be pursued in research and development, awareness, safety assessment of the new technologies and the establishment of international standards, he said. Mr Liikanen also highlighted 150 million euro of funding dedicated to research under the Intelligent Vehicle cluster of the EU's IST (information society technologies) programme, and opportunities for further research in the area under the forthcoming Sixth Framework programme for research. Action must also be taken to bring innovative driver assistance technologies onto the market, said Mr Liikanen, including a clear assessment of their cost and impact on accident reduction so that priorities can be set for their introduction. Mr Liikanen proposed the creation of a working group to prepare future high-level meetings and support the Commission in the preparation of the e-Safety action plan set out in the Commission communication on intelligent vehicles and road safety which is expected to be adopted by the Commission before the end of the year.