Electronics and road safety

Tiefensee: Electronic Systems improve road safety and help prevent congestion. Germany supports rescue system "eCall"

Berlin, Germany - On behalf of the Federal Government, Wolfgang Tiefensee, the Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the rescue system eCall.

With this, Germany is supporting a Europe-wide introduction of this electronic emergency call system, which is designed to speed up rescue operations.

Sometimes it can take a long time for the rescue services to reach the site of an accident, especially at night or in remote areas. With eCall, a signal is transmitted automatically when an air bag is released, giving the exact position of the accident to the emergency response centre.

Satellites support the rescue services in locating the crashed vehicle.

Tiefensee: "In Germany we already have an exemplary rescue system. eCall will further improve the system with the help of sophisticated technology. If rescue services can reach the scene of an accident more quickly, this will save lives. I expect other member states to take a prompt decision to cooperate in eCall. If possible, by 2010, all passengers cars entering the market will be fitted with eCall as standard."

Within the framework of the EU Presidency, Federal Minister Tiefensee opened the conference on the EU's "eSafety Initiative".

Tiefensee: "Traffic will increase significantly in the years to come. We must adapt to this situation now. Safety on Europe's roads is a major concern of the European Union. I support the objective of halving the number of road fatalities by 2010 with the help of the eSafety initiative. In order to achieve this objective we must deploy the accomplishments of modern technology for road safety and traffic management."

Improving the broadcast of traffic information and introducing braking assistance systems, lane keeping assistance systems and lane guiding systems are some of the topics that will be discussed during the conference.

Under the auspices of the German Presidency the participants will elaborate conclusions for political decisions to be taken at EU level.

Tiefensee: "European enterprises are already leading in developing intelligent driver assistance systems. German companies alone invest 16 billion euros a year in improving our vehicles, mainly in safety measures. By now, electronic devices accounts for half of this amount. We must now pave the way for acceptance and a broad-based commercialization."