Brussels, 05/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - After rear-view mirrors and road infrastructure, Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot is seeking to take on the behaviour of bad drivers in a continued drive to strengthen road safety. On 5 October Mr Barrot indicated that “the European Commission is preparing proposals” obliging individual vehicle owners to use daylight signal lights and ensure that cross-border offences on the road are followed-up. The Commissioner intends to debate these questions during the annual meeting on road safety on 4-5 November in Verona. He explained that people were now ready to talk about this subject, “We have to debate it at Verona and establish contacts with manufacturers to see at what pace the use of daylight signal lights can be imposed on individual vehicle owners”. This measure would initially only involve new vehicles. Barrot also decided to go ahead with ensuring that cross-border road offences were followed up but such a proposal clashes with both technical and legal obstacles, pointed out the Commissioner (transport policy is part of the 1st pillar but sentencing for criminal offences is under the third pillar: Editor's note).
Once adopted, these measures will complete the two proposals adopted on Thursday 5 October by the Commission to reinforce road safety. The first aims to improve the safety of road infrastructure in the Trans-European Networks (TEN-T) and the second plans to attach heavy duty vehicles with rear-view mirrors that get rid of blind spots (EUROPE 9278. According to the Commission, the proposal on road offences will allow “an annual reduction in the number of accidents involving 7000 injured and 600 killed every year”. The proposal on rear-view mirrors “could save 1200 lives on European roads by 2020”. (dt)