The European Parliament adopted a Declaration on heavy goods vehicle collisions.

The Parliament recalls that heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) make up 3% of the EU vehicle fleet, but give rise to 14% of fatal collisions, amounting to more than 4 000 annual fatalities in the 27 Member States of the European Union.

Significant and dangerous blind spots remain around HGVs despite the increased visibility requirements of Directives 2003/97/EC and 2007/38/EC for newly registered HGVs and HGVs in circulation respectively. In Europe every year, some 400 people, mostly unprotected road users such as cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians, are killed because of HGV ‘blind spots’.

Many of these fatalities could be avoided by the full installation of mirrors or increasingly cheap camera-monitor devices, active warning systems, advanced emergency braking and lane departure warning systems.

In this context, the Parliament urges the Commission to speed up its evaluation of Directive 2007/38/EC and to revise it in order to align it with technological advancement and with the latest indirect vision equipment requirements for newly registered trucks, so as to ensure an optimum level of safety. The Commission is urged to ensure that no exemptions are provided to the mandatory fitting of advanced emergency braking systems and lane departure warning systems in accordance with General Safety Regulation (EC) No 661/2009.