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NEWS July 6th 2001
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| Car lobby attempts to block safety rules Car manufacturers appear to have succeeded in convincing EU Enterprise Commissioner Erkii Liikanen to let them run a voluntery code for safety improvements in vehicle design rather than legislating. Safety campaigners have been pressing for EU laws to enforce design improvements to bonnets and bumpers which it is estimated could save over 2000 lives of pedestrians and cyclists a year. Liikanen is arguing that a voluntary agreement would be in place faster than legisaltion, but Jeanne Breen, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council, claims a new law is vital, ‘Legislation is absolutely essential. Lives are at stake. There are few more important issues than this to legislate on - if we don't legislate here, what are we using legislation for?’ Apart from the basic enforcement problem of having a voluntary code, the proposed code (drawn up, naturally, by the vehicle manufacturers themselves) does not go nearly as far as the planned legal requirements. With typical corporate arrogance, Christopher Macgowan, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, accused the safety campaigners of wanting ‘red tape’. He appears to believe car manufacturers would comply with a voluntary code as thoroughly as with legislation (obviously there are no bad apples in the vehicle industry, and they’re not solely motivated by profit). Also, according to Mr MacGowan, the industry had been planning the voluntary code in any case and did not simply dream it up in an effort to escape binding legislation. |