91999E2627

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2627/99

by Francesco Speroni (TDI) to the Commission

(12 January 2000)

Subject: Seat belts in cars

The benefits of car seat belts are all too often rendered meaningless by the failure to comply with the statutory obligation to fasten them.

Does the Commission not believe that the time has come for it to issue rules obliging car manufacturers to install mechanisms to prevent cars from being driven if the seat belts are not fastened?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 2000)

The technical standards for safety belts with which motor vehicles must comply are contained in Council Directive 77/541/EEC of 28 June 1977 on the approximately of the laws of the Member States relating to safety belts and restraint systems of motor vehicles(1) and the successive amendments.

The use of safety belts, in particular their compulsory use, are governed by Council Directive 91/671/EEC of 16 December 1991 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to compulsory use of seat belts in vehicles of less than 3,5 tonnes(2), which stipulates that Member States shall ensure that the driver and passengers occupying the seats of vehicles on the road do wear safety belts.

The Commission shares the Honourable Member's view that failure to wear a belt makes it impossible to derive the full benefits from the additional road safety provided by such retention systems. Recent studies carried out in the Member States have shown that, even with a rate of use of seat belts close to 85 % in the front seats, half of accident victims are among the 15 % who did not fasten their belt.

However, the solution proposed by the Honourable Member is likely to be difficult to implement at the moment. It would require a system which is able to detect which seats are occupied, which could not be bypassed, e.g. by fastening the belt without passing it around the body, and which did not in itself pose a serious accident risk, e.g. by causing the engine to switch off automatically if the belt is unfastened while the vehicle is in motion.

Manufacturers are studying other ways of increasing seat belt use, notably through the use of particularly irksome visual and audible warning systems, which could be widely introduced within a relatively short period of time.

The Commission does, however, believe that, as Directive 91/671/EEC indicates, the Member States already have the legislative instruments necessary to ensure stricter control of the wearing of seat belts throughout their territory.

(1) OJ L 220, 29.8.1977.

(2) OJ L 373, 31.12.1991.