CELEX: 51995PC0454
Language: en
Date: 1995-10-02
Title: Amended proposal for a EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DIRECTIVE RELATING TO THE SIDE-IMPACT RESISTANCE OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND AMENDING DIRECTIVE 70/156/EEC

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
•ir tSr
                                            Brussels, 02.10.1995
                                            COM(95)454 final
                                            94/0322 (COD)
                          Amended proposal for a
        EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
      RELATING TO THE SIDE-IMPACT RESISTANCE OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND
                       AMENDING DIRECTIVE 70/156/EEC
        (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 189 a (2)
                            of the EC-Treaty)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
On 13 December 1994, the Commission sent to the Council a proposal for a new directive
introducing measures to improve the side impact resistance of motor vehicles, amending
also Directive 70/156/EEC (COM(94)519 of 13 December 1994).
On 12 July 1995, the European Parliament approved the proposal in the first reading,
subject to 11 amendments. The Commission has accepted all but one of the proposed
amendments subject to certain drafting changes.
The substance of the amendments is the deletion of the two-stage approach, proposed by
the Commission (in which the severity of the test was increased in phases by raising the
ground clearance of the impacting barrier from 260 to 300 mm), in favour of the
immediate adoption of the more severe test in October 1998. The Commission, having
taken soundings with interested parties, can accept this approach since it ensures a
parallelism with the introduction of the new Directive on frontal impact and because it is
possible industrially to ensure the earlier introduction date than foreseen in the second
stage of the original proposal.
Amendment 7a. relating to the position of the seat in the test, cannot be accepted because
of the need to allow the Technical Service responsible for the test the possibility to specify
a different position. This would avoid the risk that padding might be used to protect just
one position or that potentially harmful equipment inside the door might be sited away
from that position, simply to comply with the test requirements in the single position.
Amendment 10. which extends the footnote already amended by 7b, is incompatible with
7a. Since the Commission cannot accept Amendment 7a (see above), there is no longer a
need to extend the footnote. (Amendments 7 and 10 are mutually inconsistent but both
were adopted by Parliament).
 Amendment 5. relating to the wording of Article 4 in respect of a future review of the test
 requirements, has been accepted in principle. The commitment to a specific future barrier
 height of 350 mm is, however, unacceptable. Whilst the Commission accepts and
 supports the principle that the effects of this legislation on road safety should be examined
 and, if necessary, the future severity of the test increased, it is opposed to inclusion of
 such a specific parameter since it would:
         pre-judge the outcome of the review and
         create de facto a second standard in the market place.
                                               -2-
 ---pagebreak--- All remaining amendments of the Parliament can be accepted and have been incorporated
in the amended proposal of the Commission, subject to improvements in the drafting and
layout.
Opportunity has been taken to include the text for Addendum 2 of Appendix 1 of
Annex II, in respect of the calculation of the viscous criterion.
                                              -3-
 ---pagebreak---            Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council
   relating to the side-impact resistance of motor vehicles and amending Directive 70/156/EEC
           ORIGINAL TEXT                                     AMENDED TEXT
                                         Article 2 (2)
2.    With effect from 1 October 1995                    With effect from 1 October 1998
      Member States:                                     Member States:
            shall not grant EEC type-                         shall not grant EEC type-
            approval in accordance with                       approval in accordance with
            Article 4 of Directive                            Article 4 of Directive
            70/156/EEC, and                                   70/156/EEC, and
            may refuse to grant national                      may refuse to grant national
            type-approval,                                    type-approval,
      unless the vehicle type satisfies the              unless the vehicle type satisfies the
       requirements of this Directive.                   requirements of this Directive.
                                         Article 2 (3)
       Paragraph 2 shall not apply to                    Paragraph 2 shall not apply to
       vehicle types approved before                     vehicle types approved before
       1 October 1995 pursuant to any                     1 October 1998 pursuant to any
      two of the following directives:                   two of the following directives:
       Directive 70/387/EEC (latches                     Directive 70/387/EEC (latches
       and        hinges),       Directive               and        hinges),        Directive
       74/483/EEC (exterior projections)                 74/483/EEC (exterior projections)
       and Directive 76/115/EEC (seat                    and Directive 76/115/EEC (seat
       belt anchorages) and, where                       belt anchorages) and, where
       applicable, subsequent extensions                 applicable, subsequent extensions
       to these approvals                                to these approvals.
                                                  -4-
 ---pagebreak---                                            Article 2 (4)
4.     With effect from 1 October 2000                        With effect from 1 October 2003
       Member States shall consider                           Member States shall consider
       certificates of conformity which                       certificates of conformity which
       accompany new vehicles in                              accompany new vehicles in
       accordance         with     Directive                  accordance        with     Directive
       70/156/EEC to be no longer valid                       70/156/EEC to be no longer valid
       for the purposes of Article 7 (1) of                   for the purposes of Article 7 (1) of
       that Directive, if the requirements                    that Directive, if the requirements
       of this Directive are not fulfilled.                   of this Directive are not fulfilled.
                                            Article 3 (2)
Annex IV to Directive 70/156/EEC is                    Annex IV to Directive 70/156/EEC is
hereby amended as follows.                             hereby amended as follows:
 1.     In Part I the following item is                In Part I the following item is added:
added:
                                                              "54.        Side-impact    resistance
        "54.       Side-impact    resistance           95/.../EEC      L...     x—x       "
95/.../EEC      L...      x—x      "
2.      In Part II the following item is
added:
        "54.        Side-impact   resistance
                                                       5-
 ---pagebreak---                                      Article 4
 In theframeworkof the adaptation             In the framework of the adaptation of
 of this Directive to technical               this Directive to technical progress
progress, a second stage shall be             within two years from the date
 adopted by the Commission. It                mentioned in Article 2(2), a review shall
 shall be based on a review of the            be held by the Commission. It shall be
 technical criteria and in particular         based on a review of the technical
 the viscous criteria, front seat             criteria and, in particular, the viscous
 position and the ground clearance            criterion, front seat position and the
of the barrier. The review criteria           ground clearance of the barrier. The
 will include inter alia accident             review criteria will include inter alia
 statistics, accident research data,          accident research data, full scale car-to-
 full scale car-to-car test results,          car test results and cost-benefit
 experience gained from approval              considerations. The review will examine
tests         and        cost-benefit         the potential gains in passenger
considerations. Notwithstanding               protection and the industrial feasibility
the above, the ground clearance of            of increasing the ground clearance of the
the barrier shall be increased to             barrier. The results of this review will
 300 mm, unless the review                    be subject to a report from the
demonstrates that a different                 Commission to the European Parliament
barrier height would provide an               and Council.
equivalent level of protection.
This second stage shall be
applicable at the request of
manufacturers on an optional
basis from 1 January 1998 and
shall be mandatory for new vehicle
types approved from 1 October
2001 .
This second stage will be
applicable to all new vehicles from
1 October 2004, subject to a
report from the Commission to the
European Parliament and Council
to be made no later than 1 October
2002 on the operation of the
Directive and the industrial
fcasibi'ity of the above date.
                                             6-
 ---pagebreak---                                          Article 5(1)
       Member States shall bring into                     Member States shall bring into
       force the laws, regulations and                    force the laws, regulations and
       administrative            provisions               administrative            provisions
       necessary to comply with this                      necessary to comply with this
       Directive before 1 October 1995.                   Directive before 1 October 1996.
       They shall forthwith inform the                    They shall forthwith inform the
       Commission thereof.                                Commission thereof.
                            Annex II - Paragraph 3.1.2 - Footnote
(1) Until 30 September 1998, for the               (1) Until 30 September 2000. for the
purposes of the test requirements, the             purposes of the test requirements, the
range of normal longitudinal adjustments           range of normal longitudinal adjustments
shall be limited such that the H-point lies        shall be limited such that the H-point lies
within the length of the door aperture.            within the length of the door aperture.
                           Annex II - Appendix 2 Paragraph 2.1.3
2.1.3        The ground clearance of the            2.1.3        The ground clearance of the
              collision zone shall be 260                        collision zone shall be 300
              mm ± 5 mm measured in                              mm ± 5 mm measured in
              static    condition    before                      static    condition    before
              impact, subject to the                             impact, subject to the
              provisions of Article 4 of                         provisions of Article 4 of
              this Directive.                                    this Directive.
                                Annex II - Appendix 2 - Figure 1
Ground clearance = 260 mm                           Ground clearance = 300 mm
                       Annex II - Appendix 1 - Addendum 2 (New Text)
                                                  -7-
 ---pagebreak--- "PROCEDURE FOR CALCULATING THE VISCOUS CRITERION (V*C) FOR SIDE
IMPACT DUMMY
The viscous criterion is calculated as the instantaneous product of the compression and the
rate of deflection of the sternum. Both arc derived from the measurement of sternum
deflection.
The sternum deflection response is filtered once at Channel Frequency Class 180. The
compression at time t is calculated from this filtered signal expressed as the proportion of
the half width of the EUROSID 1 chest, measured at the metal ribs (0.14 m):
                                                      D(o
                                          C(i) -
                                                     0.14
The sternum deflection velocity at time t is calculated from thefiltereddeflection as:
                             8 X ( A I + O - A ' - - I > ) - ( A ' + 2)-A/-2>)
                      V»> =
                                                    \2St
where D(t) is the deflection at time t in metres and 5t is the time interval in seconds
between the measurements of deflection. The maximum value of 5t shall be 1,25 x 10"4
seconds. This calculation procedure is shown diagrammatically below;
                                         Measured Deflection
                                           Filter at CFC 180
         Calculate Deflection                                            I Calculate Compression
            Velocity: Vw                                                             Cw
                                          Calculate Viscous
                                           Criterion at time /
                                       (V*C)W = 1.3(V„, x CJ
                                             Détermine the
                                        Maximum value of V*C
                                      ( V * C U = max [(V*C)(J
                                                       -X
 ---pagebreak---                                                                   ISSN 0254-1475
                                                            COM(95) 454 final
                                               DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                            07
                                     Catalogue number : CB-C0-95-496-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-77-93917-6
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