Frontal impact resistance of motor vehicles (amend. Directive 70/156/EEC)

The Council common position closely follows the amended Commission proposal, incorporating 38 European Parliament amendments accepted by the Commission; in a nutshell, a two-phase approach has been abandoned in favour of a single phase based on the offset deformable barrier testing procedure, which formed the second phase of the Commission's initial proposal. The Council has also made other additions: - the title of the directive, which has been changed to reflect the objective of protecting the occupants of motor vehicles in the event of a frontal impact; - a new paragraph has been added to Article 2 in order to exempt vehicles from the requirements of the corresponding part of Directive 74/297/EEC (the existing directive on frontal collisions), in order to avoid duplication of standards; - Article 4 (adaptation to technical progress) has been extended in such a way as to require the Commission, as well as carrying out a general reconsideration of the technical aspects of the Directive: . by the end of 1996, to reconsider and, if necessary, amend appendix 7 to Annex II (certification procedure for the dummy's leg and foot) to take into account assessment tests on the dummy's ankle; . by the end of 1997, to reconsider and, if necessary, amend the limit values for the neck injury criteria; . by the end of 1997, to make the necessary changes to the specific directives in order to ensure their compatibility with the new directive; - a new provision states that the Member States must inform the public of the results of the acceptance tests carried out; - improvements have been made to the administrative provisions relating to acceptance of a type of vehicle contained in Annex I, in the form of an extension of the list of information to be provided for the information card; - in Annex II (technical specifications), the scope of the directive has been amended to include a reference to multi-stage built vehicles; a definition of the term "inflatable cushion" has also been added; - test values for neck injuries will not be a criterion of success or failure until 1 October 1998, the date when the directive will become binding; - the test dummy's ankle must be certified in accordance with the certification procedure described in the new appendix 7 to Annex II; - tolerance with regard to speed in the test has been limited, so that the speed of impact must lie between 56 and 57 km/h.�