SAFETY+ EXCELLENCE LABELLING: WORKING TOWARDS A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR THE EUROPEAN RRS MARKET
STA’s Technical Committee 2 on Smart Safety & Security is committed since December 2014 to enhancing road safety in Europe’s roads and beyond. As a part of this wide topic, a specific Sub-Committee (consisting of various test houses, certification bodies, manufacturers, road administrators and consumer organisations) has dedicated itself to exploring avenues to improve the safety performance of Road Restraint Systems (RRS) on the European market.
In 2023 STA published the results of a comprehensive research exercise, which was conducted and fully funded by STA Members over a period of seven years. The research consisted of crash-testing and evaluating a set of certified RRS products to evaluate and certify whether they met the minimum requirements set out by the EN1317 standard. The results have revealed significant incidents of non-compliance and overall a shocking lack of compliance to life-saving safety requirements.
Following to the presentation of the results of the research exercise above to both the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) and at the PIARC World Road Congress, STA is now thrilled to announce the launch of a brand new Safety+ Excellence Labelling for RRS.
The ultimate goal of Safety+ Excellence Labelling is to provide a fair and objective assessment of the safety performance of CE-certified RRS to public authorities and consumers. The Labelling does not only evaluate the documentation of the certification of approved products, but further rate their safety levels going beyond the standard to provide a higher level of quality and confidence for specific traffic conditions and applications. This can help road authorities to ensure that the products on their roads are not only complying to the minimum requirements but perform exceptionally well for maximum roadside safety.
The Governance of the Safety+ Excellence Labelling is organised into four bodies: i) Governing Body, ii) Technical Committee, iii) Advisory Body, and iv) Secretariat (hosted by STA).
For now, the Safety+ Assessment Protocol evaluates safety barriers and parapets, and consists of several parts, which are all documented and shared transparently with customers:
Review of documentation and video-graphic information;
Report based on the EN1317 standard requirements; and
Assignment of 1-5 stars to the CE-marked RRS systems to rate their safety performance.
The Labelling itself (including the rating of 1 to 5 stars) is provided for a duration of five years, after analysing the ITT report and completing all the above-mentioned steps, which watch for errors, inconsistencies, malpractices and/or lack of reliability, in order to bring confidence to the market.
RRS are an essential element of road infrastructure nowadays as they can prevent and mitigate run-off accidents of vehicles. For this reason, the Safety+ Excellence Labelling is focusing on a road infrastructure element that is often neglected, highlighting the importance of high-level quality systems complying with EU standards.
Find out more about Safety+ Labelling activities, the upcoming catalogue of first labelled systems and other updates on the link below.
Any manufacturer interested can contact directly the STA Secretariat via email at: info@smart-transportation.org