Safety regulations in Europe Effects on the passive safety of MAN HGV driver's cabs

摘要

With the new knowledge about the passive safety of HGV cabs gained in recent years, which has already been implemented in MAN's new TGA-se-ries, it is now largely perceived that neither the ECE-R 29 directive nor the VVFS 1994:22 Crash Test (Sweden Test) is able any longer to make an essential contribution to the improvement of the safety. At times they even work counter-productively since they stipulate reinforcements which are without relevance for real accident situations. New regulations must therefore be significantly more orientated towards real accident situations in order to have a measurable effect on the balance of accident outcomes. Therefore significantly more complex crash tests may be required which can lead to considerable additional costs if the crash simulation means available to all reputable manufacturers is not better recognised as a possible means of certification by both legislative offices and test centres. Naturally it is necessary to ensure the transparency of the quality of the calculations via corresponding comparisons with selected trials for the test centres, which must train qualified staff accordingly.