In addition to new UK road safety changes due to be introduced in October 2024 for UK fleet operators, the safety of vulnerable road users, including cyclists and pedestrians, is also becoming more tightly regulated across Europe.
To operate in Greater London, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) weighing more than 12 tonnes will need a minimum three-star DVS rating. In order for HGVs to continue operating in the city, HGVs that fall below this limit must install a progressive safety system – which alerts drivers to vulnerable road users nearby. The new DVS regulations follow part of the Mayor of London’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate all deaths caused by vulnerable road users by 2041 in Greater London.
Paul Lawrence. Image: AddSecure
Although London’s new DVS regulations have spurred other UK cities to take action, the strategy was first introduced in Sweden in the 1990s, and Norway and Finland followed suit soon after. Similar to the UK DVS regulations, the European Union has recently implemented these guidelines, with the European Commission introducing the European Union Road Safety and Policy Framework in 2019, which aims to reach zero fatalities on European roads by 2050.
The aim of this framework is to address several road safety factors, including stricter speed limits and reduced traffic, by improving visibility and visibility for drivers of heavy vehicles. Statistics show that heavy vehicles are responsible for 15% of deaths across Europe, with 4,000 people losing their lives in truck collisions in Europe annually. Since the European Commission discovered that improving the direct visibility performance of heavy vehicles would save up to 550 lives per year, to significantly reduce these deaths, the framework will focus on improving low visibility by taking into account the position of the vehicle and the design of the mirrors and windows.
New European standards regulate how much road drivers should be able to see directly. These changes require an additional 80-90 cm of vehicle length to improve visibility, safety, aerodynamics and driver comfort, and for this reason, all new heavy truck models sold in Europe will need to meet these standards by September 2025.
The EU’s General Vehicle Safety Regulation (GSR), a second regulation introduced in 2022, also affects all heavy vehicles traveling throughout Europe, including the UK. These new measures urge heavy vehicles to implement technologies to protect vulnerable road users and vehicle occupants and reduce human error, with the aim of saving more than 25,000 lives and avoiding at least 140,000 serious injuries by 2038.
The GSR also introduced mandatory safety features for heavy vehicles, including emergency stop signal, reversing information, tire pressure monitoring systems, launch information systems, blind spot information systems and intelligent cruise assistance. These features are all mandatory at the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) level, when the vehicle is sold to the buyer. For older vehicles, these safety features must be installed after manufacture to comply with safety regulations.
To comply with EU regulations, operators are advised to adopt a Driver Monitoring System (DMS), which uses advanced cameras and sensors to monitor driver behavior, awareness and general condition during the entire trip. By detecting signs of distraction, weakness or fatigue, drivers will be alerted in real time – visually, aurally or both – prompting them to take action to eliminate any potential hazards.
DMS technology consists of driver-facing cameras equipped with advanced facial recognition to track the movement of drivers’ eyes and heads, detect signs of drowsiness and sense when drivers take their eyes off the road or take their hands off the steering wheel. By monitoring blink patterns, eye closure duration, yawning, and head movements, this analysis helps determine when driver intervention is needed or if a nudge is needed to draw the driver’s attention to the road.
The object detection system also recognizes objects in real time, including other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights and road markings, and monitors when the distance of these objects falls below a set limit – all to avoid potential collisions on the road.
From the 150,000 heavy vehicles entering London each year, to the more than three million heavy vehicles traveling into Europe from Great Britain annually, most heavy vehicles traveling through the EU will be affected by these guidelines to some extent. Operators must proactively look at these measures to ensure safer driving practices, support targets to mitigate road user fatalities and reach Vision Zero across the UK and Europe, and failing to do so could be a costly mistake.
Author: Paul Lawrence is AddSecure’s Managing Director for the UK, North America and Australia.
