Measures for increasing passive safety in commercial vehicles: findings from European Research Programs = Massnahmen zur Steigerung der passiven Sicherheit von Nutzfahrzeugen: Erkenntnisse aus europäischen Forschungsprogrammen

The ever increasing ties between European countries on the basis of a common market have long made passive safety in commercial vehicles a Europe-wide issue. Important, harmonized technical stipulations for commercial vehicles are in force within the European Union in the form of EEC directives, and over a broader area, in the form of ECE regulations among the ECE contracting parties. These are continually being improved. The difficulties in arriving at a consensus and implementing passive safety systems when several countries are involved will be demonstrated in this report using past examples. In addition to this, passive safety in commercial vehicles must be improved with regard to protection of both the other aprties involved and the vehicle occupants. In this context, projects and findings in the sphere of current European research programs will be described. In conclusion, the need for international research projects into commercial vehicle safety in the future will be discussed and the research areas outlined. Vehicle dynamics regulators in combination with anti-roll preventing systems for trucks and articulated vehicles show for instance a high safety potential; a reduction uo to 9%of the derious accidents will be expected