Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-27-Speech-4-014"
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"en.20060427.2.4-014"2
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".
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank the Commission for its initiative and the rapporteur for his report, which is a laudable contribution to making our roads safer.
It is crazy how many accidents happen on our roads every day; not even the most modern technology can rule them out completely. Over 41 000 people are killed on our roads every year, with over 1.6 million being injured, some of them seriously. In future, fitting vehicles with the ‘eCall’ emergency call system will save lives, in that the vehicle itself will call for help in the event of a serious accident. It will of course be possible to trigger the alarm manually, for example if one witnesses an accident or gets into a life-threatening situation oneself. It makes it possible for the emergency services to get so much more quickly to the scene of the accident, particularly when it is somewhere isolated and hard to reach, and this would cut up to EUR 26 billion per annum from the costs resulting from accidents, so the initial expenditure of four and a half billion would no doubt be money well invested.
Up to 7 000 lives could be saved every year by eCall, and it could result in 45 000 people’s injuries being less serious. If this is not something worth campaigning for, then what is?
Over one-third of all accidents resulting in personal injury happen at night, and over half of them happen to someone who is on their own. Even today, finding the victim of that sort of accident in good time is more a matter of luck; in winter, it is a regular occurrence that motorists who have had accidents on isolated roads succumb to their injuries, dying of hypothermia rather than as a direct result of the accident itself. After all, it is often the first hour after an accident – what doctors call the ‘golden hour’ – that determines whether or not it will prove fatal.
In order that the eCall emergency call system may be usable as soon as possible, the European Union should make it clear to the Member States just how important it is that a satellite-based system of emergency call centres and infrastructures be built up everywhere, and without delay. A system of this kind ought to be operational by the end of 2009.
At the same time as these infrastructures are being put in place, industry should see itself as being placed under an obligation to offer, from a specified date, all new vehicles equipped with eCall technology. Since it is in particular the purchasers of vehicles in the lower price bracket who are wary of spending more money on safety equipment, I would like to see the motor industry introduce the system throughout their ranges in order to reduce the costs to a minimum as soon as possible.
eCall is also, and especially, vital to the life chances of motorcyclists, who are often not in a position to call for help themselves. The same applies in the case of HGVs and buses; ships and aircraft have long been equipped with a comparable system as a matter of course.
In my electoral district, the emergency services, the police and the motorists’ associations, regional politicians, representatives of the media, and even the senior citizens’ associations are all hoping that eCall will be made mandatory. We have not got that far yet. I ask the House to adopt the report."@en1
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