Skip to main content

UN vehicle regulations ‘could prevent deaths and injuries in Brazil’

A new research report from the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has revealed that 34,000 Brazilian lives could be saved and 350,000 serious injuries prevented by 2030, if UN vehicle safety regulations were adopted and car manufacturers sought to achieve higher ratings in the Latin NCAP crash test programme. Published on the eve of the second High Level Conference on Road Safety in Brazil, the independent study, which was commissioned by Global NCAP, highlights the gap between the regulated vehicl
November 17, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A new research report from the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (491 TRL) has revealed that 34,000 Brazilian lives could be saved and 350,000 serious injuries prevented by 2030, if UN vehicle safety regulations were adopted and car manufacturers sought to achieve higher ratings in the Latin NCAP crash test programme.

Published on the eve of the second High Level Conference on Road Safety in Brazil, the independent study, which was commissioned by Global NCAP, highlights the gap between the regulated vehicle safety standards in the industrialised regions and Brazil. TRL’s findings closely align with the policy recommendations set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in their recent Global Status Report on Road Safety.

The new study concludes that Brazil “has started to introduce vehicle safety legislation and Latin NCAP is raising awareness about the importance of car safety and creating consumer based competition to motivate improvements”. However, “to help create an automotive market in Brazil that provides adequate levels of safety, further development of the minimum regulatory standards is required.”

Brazil has clearly made road safety a priority, and supporting much needed legislation will enable them to reach their road safety goals even faster. The report identifies clear regulatory priorities for Brazil including “the need to introduce a side impact crashworthiness test and to mandate for Electronic Stability Control (ESC) to be fitted to every new passenger car.”

The report also sets out a timetable for the adoption of these priorities which “are internationally proven to be cost effective countermeasures that save lives” and that there are clearly “established UN regulations available to apply now.”

Related Content

  • June 13, 2017
    Chicago mayor unveils Vision Zero Action Plan
    Chicago Mayor Emanuel has announced the city’s Vision Zero Chicago Action Plan, a multi-Agency approach which aims to improve traffic safety for all road users. The ultimate goal of Vision Zero is to reduce roadway crashes and eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Chicago by 2026. A dozen City departments and agencies have been working for months with traffic safety stakeholders to develop the Vision Zero Action plan, which covers the first three years of the effort and is based on the princi
  • July 31, 2012
    Future of US cooperative infrastructure networks
    Peter H. Appel, the new Administrator of the USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, on his vision of the US's future cooperative infrastructure networks. Peter H. Appel comes to the post of Administrator of the US Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) from a background in transportation-related work which stretches back over 20 years. Most recently with management consultancy A. T. Kearney, Inc., where he focused on busin
  • January 18, 2012
    Evidence growing for distance-based charging
    The case is growing for an alternative to fuel taxation for funding highway infrastructure. A more sustainable system of mileage-based charging can be established in a way that is acceptable to the travelling public, writes Jack Opiola. Fuel tax - the lifeblood relied on for 80 years to maintain and improve roads and transit systems - is now in considerable jeopardy in the United States. Increased vehicle fuel efficiency and a poor economy already hamper generation of fuel tax revenue; now a recent federal
  • July 18, 2017
    Leading Finland’s transport revolution
    Anne Berner, Finland’s minister of transport and communications, does not fit the normal political mould. She is not a career politician but a business executive who became a member of parliament in 2015 and has said from the outset that she will only serve one term. Without concerns about being re-elected and a clear view of the future of transport, Berner can concentrate on what needs to be done - tackling some of the more contentious and intransigent subjects. Her name is best known for two major initiat