Road safety: mirrors, systems for indirect vision on vehicles (amend. Directive 70/156/EEC, repeal. Directive 71/127/EEC)

The Council's common position, which has been adopted unanimously, involves several changes to the Commission's initial proposal but does not change its overall orientation. Except for some technical modifications the Council also agreed on certain changes to the transition periods. Among the amendments included in the common position the following are of main importance: - a new paragraph has been added in order to postpone by 12 months the application of the directive concerning class VI front mirrors as components and their installation on vehicles; - the transition period for existing types of passenger cars (M1) and light commercial vehicles (N1) is extended from 36 to 72 months. The application dates for larger vehicles intended for the carriage of passengers and goods (M2, M3, N2, N3) have not been altered. The early application of the directive to the latter mentioned types is of major importance for the Commission as these vehicles are the main cause of accidents related to the blind spot, when drivers fail to detect other road users or pedestrians and was the main reason for the Commission to draft its proposal; - the transition period allowing Member States to grant type-approval for replacement parts intended for vehicles approved under the old regime has been extended by 12 months to 36 months; - a new paragraph has been introduced referring to special articulated vehicles composed of at least three articulated rigid parts as defined in Directive 2001/85/EC on buses. - in accordance with the extension of the transition period the Commission study about the effects of the amendment to vulnerable road users shall now be carried out within 72 months instead of 4 years after entry into force of the directive. - In Article 4 the proposed amendments to framework directive 70/156/EEC have been extended and clarified; - in accordance with the extended transition periods in Article 2 the repealing of Directive 71/127/EEC will come into effect only 72 months after entry into force of the directive instead of 24 months. Concerning the technical Annexes: - the presentation and the structure of certain Annexes and related Appendices has been modified. Appendices 1 and 3 to Annex I are new and concern the Information Document for type-approval of devices for indirect vision and of motor vehicles. The proposed Appendix 2 to Annex II and the first part of Appendix 1 to Annex III have been deleted; - some changes to the terminology have been introduced. The term "systems for indirect vision" has been replaced by "devices for indirect vision" and the definitions for different kinds of "systems" have been removed; - in Annex II, item 3 the requirement that external rear-view mirrors of vehicles of categories M1 and N1 must be equipped with an additional aspherical part has been removed; - the requirements in Annex III concerning the fitting of mirrors of classes IV, V and VI to vehicles of category N2 inferior or equal to 7.5 t have become optional instead of compulsory; - in the same Annex the requirements regarding the mounting height of class V mirrors have been extended to class VI mirrors. - in Annex III a new requirement has been introduced for vehicles of categories M2 and M3 as well as refuse collection vehicles ofcategories N2 superior to 7.5 t and N3, which concerns the required field of vision behind the vehicle; - furthermore a number of smaller modifications and clarifications have been introduced to the text.�