PRESS
RELEASE
from the
Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations
June 18th 2007
CEN recognises the need to revise EU guardrail standard to include motorcyclists
After 25 years of continuous fight at national and European level, FEMA
finally made Member States recognise the problem of existing road restraint
systems with regards to motorcyclists, and made them commit to find a solution.
Thousands of dead and seriously injured motorcyclists, hundreds of
demonstrations, numerous presentations, discussions and shouts of anger
throughout Europe have been necessary before Member States’ representatives
recognised the problem caused by guardrails and decided to find a solution.
Road restraint systems in Europe have so far been designed and tested to protect
all categories of vehicles, except motorcycles. This situation has not been
amended but rather reinforced with the development of a European standard.
Although the standard proved to be inadequate for motorcyclists, Member States
rigorously applied it . Motorcyclists immediately denounced the problem, calling
for the EU standard (EN1317) to be adapted and to take their specific
characteristics into account. Indeed, when impacting, colliding or simply
sliding on a road, motorcyclists are obviously not protected by traditional
“road restraint systems”. On the contrary: these turn into a major additional
hazard when the motorcyclist impact the supporting poles.
Aline Delhaye, General Secretary of the "Federation of European Motorcyclists’
Associations" (FEMA) attended her first CEN/TC226 1 meeting last week in Oslo,
Norway, since the association was granted the liaison status last January
as representative of European motorcycle riders. During the meeting, Aline
Delhaye managed to explain motorcyclists’ concerns about existing EN1317
standard and currently designed guardrails and convinced TC226 members to start
working on the issue of motorcyclist protection with regards to road restraint
systems. In its resolution 287, CEN members unanimously accepted in principle
to work on the protection of motorcyclists in respect of road restraint systems
and asked the Chairman, the Secretary and the convenor of WG 1, in
consultation with FEMA, to prepare the scope for a new work item based on the
existing standards, regulations and technical specifications in the CEN member
countries”.
CEN/TC226 last week’s vote marks a milestone for FEMA and its members in their
collective fight to have protective guardrails which do not turn into additional
road hazards in the unfortunate case of an accident.
Aline Delhaye says: “The CEN resolution is a great success for the whole
rider community and we can celebrate this as a first step towards victory! To
obtain such a positive result at our first meeting with CEN members was
unexpected. One would have thought FEMA lobby work would have lasted years
before obtaining such positive move forward. I was particularly pleased to
notice a broad understanding and recognition of the problem among TC226 members,
which I believe is mostly due to FEMA members’ constant work and pressure
towards road authorities, standardizing bodies and the general public at
national level.”
The next challenge will be to ensure that the work undertaken will not take
ages, as it is sometimes the case for EU standards.
END
Notes to editor:
1. CEN: European Committee for Standardisation - TC226: Technical Committee on
"Road equipment" The CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation, was
founded in 1961 by the
national standards
bodies in the
European Economic Community (EEC) and EFTA countries. Today, CEN is contributing
to the objectives of the European Union and European Economic Area with
voluntary technical standards which promote free trade, the safety of workers
and consumers, interoperability of networks, environmental protection,
exploitation of research and development programmes, and public procurement. On
behalf of governments, the European Commission or EFTA Secretariat may request
the European Standards organisations to develop standards in support of their
policies by issuing formal 'mandates'. More information on
http://www.cen.eu/
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FEMA - Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations
Rue des Champs 62, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 736 9047 / Fax: +32 (0)2 736 9401
http://www.fema.ridersrights.org