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Road Accidents

Volume 406: debated on Tuesday 3 June 2003

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To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what percentage of new cars have ABS brakes fitted; what assessment he has made of the effect of ABS brakes on the number of road accidents; and what his policy is on making the fitting of ABS brakes compulsory on all new cars. [115733]

The major European, Japanese and Korean car manufacturers have made a commitment to fit ABS to all new cars sold from 1 July 2004. Only certain sports car and specialist vehicle manufacturers are not bound by this commitment. These represent a very small proportion of vehicles. entering the vehicle fleet.The Department for Transport commissioned the Transport Research Laboratory to carry out research into the effectiveness of ABS in reducing accidents. The results indicated a 3 per cent. overall reduction in accidents. The report concluded that, although ABS had the potential to reduce the number of accidents, this had not yet been fully realised, in part because many drivers had little or no knowledge of how ABS can help in an emergency. The Department"s Driving Standards Agency is considering how driver understanding of ABS can be improved.Copies of the TRL report, "A Survey of the Effectiveness of ABS in Reducing Accidents" have been placed in the Libraries of the House.Given the almost total coverage achieved by the industry commitment, the Department will not be seeking the compulsory fitting of ABS in new cars.