Safety measures in new vehicles to become mandatory from this weekend

EU regulation aimed at significantly reducing deaths and serious injuries on roads by mandating certain Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in new vehicles will come in to effect on Sunday.

Some 97 people have died on Irish roads so far this year, 12 more than in the same period last year. Nineteen of those killed were under the age of 20, while an additional 37 were under 30.

The primary aim of the new regulation is to reduce collisions by deploying advanced safety systems to help protect motorists and their passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.

The regulation covers the introduction of a wide range of technologies, including drowsiness detection, blind spot information systems, advanced emergency braking, alcohol interlock installation facilitation and intelligent speed assistance.

Sam Waide, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA), has welcomed the introduction of ADAS.

“ADAS uses sensors and other electronic systems to assist drivers in various driving tasks and help prevent collisions. It has the potential to significantly improve road safety in Ireland,” he said.

Intelligent speed assistance is a key feature which alerts drivers when they are speeding.

This technology is expected to help drivers keep within the speed limit by issuing an audible warning or vibrating alert when the driver exceeds the limit or when the speed limit changes.

It operates using a front-facing camera which reads speed limit signs. This data can be combined with GPS mapping in the vehicle’s software, enabling the car to know the current speed limits along its route.

Advanced emergency braking is a system which monitors the road ahead, alerting the driver if a potential collision is about to occur. The system automatically applies the brakes if the driver fails to brake in an emergency.

An alcohol interlock interface allows the installation of aftermarket breathalysers on newly manufactured vehicles. Where aftermarket devices are fitted, the driver must pass a breath alcohol content test to enable the vehicle to start.

Meanwhile, according to research published by the University of Limerick (UL) in November 2022, installing ADAS on cars could result in a significant reduction in crashes.

Using publicly available road safety reports from Britain for 2019, researchers estimated that a full deployment of ADAS would reduce collision frequency there by 23.8 per cent, an annual decrease of 18,925 incidents.

Researchers from Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software at the UL, and Motion-S, Luxembourg, also found advanced emergency braking is the most impactful technology, reducing three out of the four most frequent collision categories: intersection (by 28 per cent), rear-end (by 27.7 per cent) and pedestrian collisions (by 28.4 per cent). The research team believe similar results could be achieved in Ireland.

The RSA, in association with the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, is running a campaign to raise awareness of the changes among consumers and the motor industry.