European Commission consults on blind-spot mirrors

Publication date: 18 April 2006

The European Commission is seeking views of interested parties on its intention to propose a directive on the retrofitting of mirrors increasing the field of indirect vision (“blind-spot mirrors") of heavy goods vehicles. The Consultation runs until 19 May 2006.

consultation_blind_spot_mirrors.pdf (331 KB)

Comments should be sent to the following address:
European Commission
DG Transport & Energy
Road Safety Unit
“Blind Spot"
E-mail: TREN-E3-CONSULTATION@cec.eu.int
Fax: 0032-2-296.51.96
The Commission will publish the comments received.

Background:
Every year, 400 European citizens lose their lives in accidents with trucks, because the truck driver did not see them, when he or she turned right. Under a EU-Directive of 2003, new trucks (heavy goods vehicles with a total weight of more than 3.5 tons) will have to be equipped with blind spot mirrors from next year on. However, the replacement of trucks in Europe is slow. The existing population of heavy good vehicles, today at around 5 million in the European Union, will only be fully replaced in around 16 years, i.e. by 2022 at the earliest. Until then, the danger will continue to exist, even with existing legislation.

If a legal retrofitting obligation enters into force by 2008 for the relevant heavy goods vehicle population in operation since 1998, an extra 1300 lives on European roads can be saved until 2020. The retrofit concerns almost 4 Million heavy goods vehicles. For the overwhelming majority of this population, costs of retrofit will be between 100 and 150 Euro per truck.