Volvo Trucks' President demands change of legislation to help save 800-900 lives a year

Volvo Trucks' President demands change of legislation to help save 800- 900 lives a year Every year, almost 4,000 people die in frontal collisions between cars and trucks on Europe's roads. Volvo Trucks and its President, Jorma Halonen, are now demanding a change in legislation that will make it possible to build trucks with an effective deformation zone at the front. "We cannot simply sit back and watch while 800 or 900 people a year lose their lives entirely unnecessarily," said Jorma Halonen at a press conference in conjunction with the European Road Transport Show in Amsterdam. Since August this year a front underrun protection system, that prevents cars from becoming wedged under the front of trucks, is mandatory for all new trucks. This improves the chances for the passengers in the car to survive a frontal collison with a relative speed of 60 km/h. However, Jorma Halonen and Volvo Trucks would like to go one step further: if trucks were equipped with a 60 cm long extra deformation zone at the front, safety would be further improved even at relatively high speeds. It would then be possible for the passengers to survive a collision at higher speed and some 800-900 lives could be saved every year in Europe.It is not possible to build this type of deformation zone into a truck with the current European vehicle weight and length regulations, without reducing the vehicle's load capacity by a corresponding amount - a consideration that forces haulage companies to choose between increased safety and unimpaired load capacity. "Quickly implemented, standardised legislation on vehicle length and weight throughout Europe is the only way to make a longer deformation zone possible," says Jorma Halonen. "This is not going to happen on a voluntary basis, because no haulage company can afford to reduce load capacity." Volvo Trucks has made some progress by introducing an integrated 20 cm deformation zone in the standard vehicle on all newer Volvo FH and Volvo FM models. Further solutions already exist in concept vehicles. 2003-10-16 For further information, please contact Claes Claeson, Volvo Trucks, telephone +46 31-66 39 08 or +46 708-36 39 08. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/10/16/20031016BIT00860/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/10/16/20031016BIT00860/wkr0002.pdf