Volvo Trucks' President demands change of legislation to help save 800-
900 lives a year

Every year, almost 4,000 people die in frontal collisions between cars
and trucks on Europe's roads. Volvo Trucks and its President, Jorma
Halonen, are now demanding a change in legislation that will make it
possible to build trucks with an effective deformation zone at the
front.
"We cannot simply sit back and watch while 800 or 900 people a year lose
their lives entirely unnecessarily," said Jorma Halonen at a press
conference in conjunction with the European Road Transport Show in
Amsterdam.

Since August this year a front underrun protection system, that prevents
cars from becoming wedged under the front of trucks, is mandatory for
all new trucks. This improves the chances for the passengers in the car
to survive a frontal collison with a relative speed of 60 km/h.

However, Jorma Halonen and Volvo Trucks would like to go one step
further: if trucks were equipped with a 60 cm long extra deformation
zone at the front, safety would be further improved even at relatively
high speeds. It would then be possible for the passengers to survive a
collision at higher speed and some 800-900 lives could be saved every
year in Europe.It is not possible to build this type of deformation zone
into a truck with the current European vehicle weight and length
regulations, without reducing the vehicle's load capacity by a
corresponding amount - a consideration that forces haulage companies to
choose between increased safety and unimpaired load capacity.

"Quickly implemented, standardised legislation on vehicle length and
weight throughout Europe is the only way to make a longer deformation
zone possible," says Jorma Halonen. "This is not going to happen on a
voluntary basis, because no haulage company can afford to reduce load
capacity."

Volvo Trucks has made some progress by introducing an integrated 20 cm
deformation zone in the standard vehicle on all newer Volvo FH and Volvo
FM models. Further solutions already exist in concept vehicles.

2003-10-16

For further information, please contact 
Claes Claeson, Volvo Trucks,
telephone +46 31-66 39 08 or +46 708-36 39 08.