IN THE NEWS
SILENT BUT DEADLY - NEW LAW TAKES THE ‘SILENT KILLER’ OUT OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES BUT ONLY NEW MODELS
They’re silent but deadly. At
low
speeds electric and hybrid vehicles are a real menace on the roads because they are so quiet at low speeds. Without the purr of a petrol or diesel
engine to warn them, pedestrians are less likely to notice the approach of an EV than of a conventional vehi- cle. All that is about to change, at least in part.
From 1st Septem- ber 2019 all new models of hybrid and pure electric vehicles must by law be fitted with an acoustic vehicle alerting system that emits a continuous sound when the
vehicle is travelling at speeds of up to 20km/hour. This will be extended to all new electric and hybrid vehicles reg- istered after
1st
September 2021. The new regulation, which has been
stipulated by the United Nations, is being brought in to protect vulnerable road users, particu- larly blind and partial ly-sighted people who de- pend, more than most of us, on hear- ing traffic to judge when it is safe to cross the road. However, what it doesn’t account for is the 200,000-plus EVs which are cur- rently on Britain’s roads each posing a hazardous risk to vulnerable
road
users. Safety pioneer, Chris Hanson-Abbott OBE, Chairman of Bri- gade Electronics, which has spent the past nine years developing a quiet vehicle
sounder
that mimics the vital warning char- acteristics of an internal combus- tion engine, said: “It’s not a moment too soon – in fact it is not soon enough! “Visually impaired people will still be at
risk because
there are already electric and hybrid vehicles on the road that are virtually silent at low speeds. These are putting lives in danger. “We are all taught to listen as well as look out for traffic and the background noise in busy streets will mask any slight sound an EV may make when moving off.
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“Owners of ‘silent’ vehicles
if they really
ought to be aware of the danger and fit a quiet vehicle sounder
want to avoid un- ecessary accidents. No-one wants to knock down a pedestrian.” A study in America found that electric and hybrid vehicles double the risk of accidents with pedestrians when executing
slow
manoeuvres such as starting in traf- fic, slowing down, reversing, entering or leaving a drive- way or parking space. Similarly, the risk of accidents is raised by 80 per cent when turning cor- ners and by 50 per cent at speeds of less than 35mph. In the UK another study
commis-
sioned by Guide Dogs for the Blind found that pedes- trians are 40 per cent more likely to be hit by an EV than a diesel or petrol one. Brigade Electronics is the company that introduced
the
reversing bleeper to the UK more than 43 years
ago,
heralding a revolu- tion in road safety, and it views the quiet
sounder as being equally significant in its potential to save lives.
MAY 2019 vehicle
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