欧盟拟为公交车辆装"黑匣子"

为了在未来十年内将道路交通死亡人数减少一半，欧盟最近提出了一系列道路安全行动计划，其中包括建议在公交车、出租车以及货车上安装功能类似飞机“黑匣子”的行驶数据记录器。这种“汽车黑匣子”不仅可以记录汽车行驶中的状态，同时还能记录司机的各种操作。这样，在事故发生后能够帮助警察找出事故真相。对于此项提议，有人担心会被强制安装“黑匣子”，也有人表示此举同时也增加了政府的监控范围。欧盟方面回应表示，不会强制车主安装，同时声明“黑匣子”可以帮助驾驶员澄清事故责任，能够有效解决事故争议。除提议安装“汽车黑匣子”以外，欧盟的道路安全行动计划还包括，强制所有车辆安装电子稳定程序以及为公交车和货车安装自动刹车系统等。

Buses, taxis and lorries could be fitted with aircraft style “black boxes” under European Commission proposals to boost road safety.

The Commission, which has set a target of reducing road deaths by half over the next decade, wants to examine putting the devices into commercial vehicles.

Proposals for what are known as “event data recorders” were included in the Commission’s latest Road Safety Action Plan.

As disclosed in the Daily Telegraph last year, the Commission has already spent £2.4 million on examining how the technology would work in a scheme known as “Project Veronica”.

The black boxes could be used to help police piece together what happened following an accident. They could, for example, detect whether a car has braked suddenly or swerved.

In a statement, the Commission said its officials would examine "the added value of developing and installing event data recorders in particular on professional vehicles, to improve technical investigations and analysis of accidents".

The Commission’s readiness to spend more money on examining the technology has triggered fears that they could be made compulsory in all cars.

But this was denied by the Commission.

Opponents of the use of black boxes have warned their introduction would lead to the further growth of the surveillance state

Supporters of the scheme say it would help drivers involved in an accident prove they were not to blame for a collision.

“Drivers should not be concerned about in-vehicle data recorders. If used properly, they can help to prove a driver’s innocence in disputed cases”, said Robert Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety.

Other key plans of the road safety strategy include the compulsory installation of electronic stability control on cars as well as automatic braking systems for buses and lorries.

"One hundred people die every day on Europe's roads," said EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas. "We have made good progress since 2001 and we have succeeded in saving nearly 80,000 lives.

"But the number of fatalities and injuries on our roads is still unacceptable.”

The EU proposals were welcomed by Kevin Clinton head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. “Moving forward together on road safety is good for the EU. States have much they can learn from each other.

“Given its position as a road safety leader, the UK can share a lot from its experience, but we must remember that there are important lessons for us too.”

“Although a great deal of progress has been made since 2001, it would be wrong to see road safety as a ‘job well done’. More than 35,000 people died in road accidents across Europe last year, and stark figures like these must spur us on to greater achievement in the future.