Bull bars will be banned from all new cars under EU pedestrian safety plans due to be approved in Brussels tomorrow as part of a voluntary agreement with car makers to reduce the risk to pedestrians in a collision.
But transport safety campaigners say the deal is much weaker than experts have recommended after 22 years of scientific tests funded by the EU and member states.
The European Transport Safety Council claims the Brussels Commission and EU governments are bowing to a powerful car industry lobby and trimming their demands for tougher car impact standards.
Four new crash tests for car fronts have been in the pipeline for years, designed to cut injuries caused to pedestrians by protruding bonnet edges and bumpers.
If all four tests were mandatory, says the ETSC, the current 9,300 pedestrian and cyclist deaths a year in the EU could be cut by 2,000, and the annual 200,000 injured in accidents involving cars, reduced by 18,000.
But the voluntary code being considered by ministers meeting in Brussels tomorrow commits the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) only to a more limited range of modifications which, says the ETSC, will only cut pedestrian deaths by 500 a year.
However, the agreement does not include bull bars bought as an accessory, and the ETSC says the bull bar problem represents only a small proportion of all pedestrian injuries caused by car fronts of all types.
PA