Directive 2003/102/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 relating to the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users before and in the event of a collision with a motor vehicle and amending Council Directive 70/156/EEC

Directive 2003/102/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 17 November 2003
relating to the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users before and in the event of a collision with a motor vehicle and amending Council Directive 70/156/EEC
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee(1),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(2),
Whereas:
(1) In order to reduce the number of road accident casualties in the Community, it is necessary to introduce measures so as to improve the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users before and in the event of a collision with the front of a motor vehicle.
(2) A package of passive and active measures for improving safety (avoidance of accidents and reduction of secondary effects by traffic calming and infrastructure improvements) for vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, is urgently needed in the framework of the road safety action programme.
(3) The internal market comprises an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital must be ensured and to that end a Community type-approval system for motor vehicles is in place; the technical requirements for the type-approval of motor vehicles with regard to pedestrian protection should be harmonised to avoid the adoption of requirements that differ from one Member State to another and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market.
(4) Pedestrian protection objectives can be achieved by a combination of active and passive safety measures; the recommendations by the European Enhanced Vehicle-Safety Committee (EEVC) of June 1999 are the subject of a wide consensus in this area; those recommendations propose performance requirements for the frontal structures of certain categories of motor vehicles to reduce their aggressiveness; this Directive presents tests and limit values based on the EEVC recommendations.
(5) The Commission should examine the feasibility of extending the scope of this Directive to vehicles with a maximum mass of up to 3,5 tonnes, and report its findings to the European Parliament and to the Council.
(6) This Directive should be considered as one element of a broader package of measures, to be undertaken by the Community, the industry and the relevant authorities of the Member States, on the basis of exchanges in best practice, in order to address pre-crash (active), in-crash (passive), and post-crash safety of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, with respect to road users, vehicles and infrastructure.
(7) In view of the speed of technological development in this area, alternative measures at least equivalent in terms of actual effectiveness to the requirements of this Directive - either passive or a combination of active and passive measures - may be proposed by the industry and shall be assessed following a feasibility study carried out by independent experts by 1 July 2004; the introduction of alternative measures at least equivalent in terms of actual effectiveness would require adapting or amending this Directive.
(8) Because of the ongoing research and technical progress in the area of pedestrian protection, it is appropriate to introduce a degree of flexibility in this field. Accordingly, this Directive should establish the fundamental provisions regarding pedestrian protection in the form of tests to be complied with by new types of vehicles and by new vehicles. The technical prescriptions for the application of such tests should be adopted by Commission decision.
(9) The rapidly advancing technology in active safety means that collision mitigation and avoidance systems could provide major safety benefits, for example in reducing collision speed and adjusting impact direction. The development of such technologies should be encouraged by this Directive.
(10) The associations representing the European, Japanese and Korean motor vehicle manufacturers have made commitments to start applying the EEVC recommendations concerning limit values and tests, or agreed alternative measures of at least equivalent effect, as from 2010, and a first set of limit values and tests as from 2005 to new types of vehicles and to apply the first set of tests to 80 % of all new vehicles as from 1 July 2010, to 90 % of all new vehicles as from 1 July 2011 and to all new vehicles as from 31 December 2012.
(11) This Directive should also contribute to establishing a high level of protection in the context of the international harmonisation of legislation in this area, which started under the 1998 Agreement of the UN/ECE concerning the establishment of global technical regulations for wheeled vehicles, equipment and parts which can be fitted and/or be used on wheeled vehicles.
(12) This Directive is one of the separate Directives which have to be complied with in order to conform to the EC type-approval procedure established by Council Directive 70/156/EEC of 6 February 1970 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers(3).
(13) Directive 70/156/EEC should therefore be amended accordingly,