REU6682 3 OEC 207 ( BNX WEU EUROPE AUT IND EU US ) L17711920 AUTOS-EUROPE-RADAR EU gives green light to car safety radar - Daimler FRANKFURT, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The European Commission allocated a radar frequency on Monday that will let cars with the proper equipment detect nearby objects and warn drivers to avoid them, German-American automaker DaimlerChrysler said.
Officials at the Commission were not immediately available to comment on the step. A DaimlerChrysler spokesman said the firm learned of it via its lawyers in Brussels.
The move, set to be implemented in EU member states' national laws by mid-2005, is an important safety step that may curb the frequency and severity of rear-end accidents or help avoid fender benders while parking.
The idea is for short-range radar systems mounted on cars to detect objects within 20 meters (yards), raising a signal that gives drivers time to head off an accident.
DaimlerChrysler, part of a consortium that had lobbied for a car radar frequency, said it aimed to be first manufacturer to roll out the technology on its vehicles.
"This is bringing us a decisive step closer to our objective of reducing the incidence of fatal road accidents by 50 percent by the year 2010," the group's head of research and technology, Thomas Weber, said in a statement.
The United States allocated such a frequency in 2002.
REUTERS 1524 170105 GMT
HSA7398 4 HHH 404 PA 1 POLICE Drivers Weapon POLICE WANT NEW USING VEHICLE AS A WEAPON OFFENCE By Neville Dean, PA Crime Correspondent A new offence of using a vehicle as a weapon should be introduced to protect police officers from motorists who deliberately try to drive into them, the Police Federation said today.
The offence could also apply to cases of road rage or in domestic disputes where cars were often used in a threatening way, federation chairwoman Jan Berry said.
She said more than 150 police officers were injured in the first eight months of last year by motorists who drove a vehicle at them. In the past, officers had even been killed in this way, she added.
Ms Berry said that under existing laws such drivers were likely to face only a dangerous or careless driving charge, particularly if the officer had managed to escape unscathed or with only minor injuries.
However, she said these charges did not adequately reflect the "sinister" nature of such cases and called for a new offence, with tougher jail penalties.
"If you have a case where a police officer is driven at when they are trying to stop a vehicle, that person may be charged with dangerous driving - which carries a maximum of two years in prison - or careless driving, which carries a fine," she said.
"The law is not sufficient to demonstrate the gravity of the offence and its consequences.
"We think that if you aimed your car at somebody but did not hit them, the fact of your malicious intent should be taken into account.
"We think there is a gap in the law. You either have minor road traffic offences or very serious criminal offences - there needs to be something in the middle." Ms Berry said a new offence of using a vehicle as a weapon - which would carry a five-year jail term - would act both as a deterrent and an appropriate punishment.
The Police Federation has proposed the new law as an amendment to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Commons.
Someone would be guilty of the offence if they "wilfully or intentionally" used a vehicle to "maim or harm or cause alarm or distress to another person".
A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said there were already a wide range of motoring offences to cover all kinds of road related incidents.
ends 171305 JAN 05