The 21st FIM Europe Congress in Malta hosted the 9th edition of Road Safety Conference, which traditionally deals with the most important and updated topics of the matter.
In the latest years, the Road Safety Conference dealt with road incidentality, industry responses and initiatives, the systems to improve Road Safety, traumatic injuries and first aid, 2 wheeler behaviour and safety, roadside barriers and crash tests, and, last year, with themes related with Safety concepts and devices derived from Track, such as airbag for motorcyclists.
This year the Road Safety Conference dealt with the development of electronics to increase usability and safety both on track and on road.
The conference was held under the auspices of Silvio Manicardi, FIM Europe vice-president, and of Jean-Pierre Moreau, Chairman of Public Affairs Commission.
From the left Ms Audrey Testaferrata de Noto, John Chatterton-Ross, Antonio Perlot and Matthias Moerbe.
The first lecturer to speak was a representative of the hosting Country, Mrs Audrey Testaferrata de Noto, Transport Malta, who also gave the statistics of the Island as for 2 and 4 wheels. In particular, in 2014 there were 18.400 licensed motorcycles, 278 road accidents with motorcyclists. The most common collisions are with motor vehicles emerging from side roads.
Mr John Chatterton-Ross, FIM Europe Director of Public Affairs, made his intervention on “Current issues facing motorcycling from Brussels”: the European Court of Justice and the case of Mr Vnuk (insurance problems in sporting events); PPE – Personal protective Equipment standards (gloves, boots, jackets, clothing and one piece suits); EU ‘White Paper’ on Transport (not to forget Europe’s 38 million riders!); Euro 5 emissions standards for powered two wheelers – threat of city bans; relations between FIM, FIM Europe and the Federation of European Motorcyclists Associations, FEMA.
The third lecturer to speak was Antonio Perlot, Secretary General of ACEM, with his speech on “The safe ride to the future – Industry commitment to road safety”. Starting from a recap of the motorcycle industry in Europe, Perlot stressed the diversity of vehicles, owners and purposes (commuting, leisure, sport) and that congestion costs Europe about 1% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) every year. The speech faced the policy orientations of road safety for 2011-2020, and the safety trends, as well as the industry approach to road safety. In the end, the renewed ACEM road safety strategy was illustrated.
Matthias Moerbe, Vice President of Technology Management System and Components of Bosch Engineering GmbH, spoke of “The electronic on road bikes and on circuit: how they help each other in the development of better systems for road use”. The main topics were traction control, lean angle sensor, ABS and MSC, gear shift, drive by wire, semi active suspension, airbag and data recording, to conclude that road bikes and on circuit benefit from the same technology and inspire each other.
The full presentations of the Conference are published on FIM Europe website in “Social” section at the following link:
http://www.fim-europe.com/index.php/social/public-affairs/road-safety
Silvio Manicardi introducing the lecturers.
