THE European Commission has adopted a new eSafety Communication policy that lays down a set of measures for safer vehicles as part of its goal of halving the number of road deaths by 2010.

It plans to deploy the use of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) in vehicles and says the adoption of the communication is based on consultation with industry and other players.

A spokesman said: 'It builds on the action programme by bringing forward many detailed actions to improve the use of ICT in vehicles.

'These measures will potentially affect all types of vehicles in the future and are important for all road users.'

The member of the commission responsible for enterprise policy, Erkki Liikanen, added: 'Recently, the Commission has taken a number of initiatives in the area of road safety, including the adoption of the Road Safety Action Programme.

'But still the costs of road accidents, injuries and fatalities caused by road transport are too high, and new measures are required.

'Information and communications technologies that are already widely in use in vehicles are an important set of tools which allow the road safety challenge to be tackled.

'The public sector has to work together with the private sector by investing in the required infrastructure and in taking measures that enable the market introduction of new solutions.' The communication adopted by the commission should accelerate the development of active safety systems, called Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems.

The spokesman added: 'Information and communication technologies that are already widely in use in vehicles are seen as an important set of tools to tackle the road safety challenge.

'With the development of more powerful processors, communication technologies, sensors and actuators, it is possible to design ever more sophisticated integrated active safety systems, which can mitigate the consequences of an accident or even completely avoid it.'