EU Looks to Make Drivers Stop Speeding

Britain opposes 'Big Brother' proposal
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2013 11:19 AM CDT
EU Looks to Make Drivers Stop Speeding
Speeding cars could face a automatic slowing devices in the EU.   (Shutterstock)

The European Union is pushing a high-tech plan to prevent speeding: Cars could be equipped with devices to reduce their speed when it breaks the limit, the Daily Mail reports. Some 30,000 people in the EU die in road accidents each year; officials are hoping to slash that figure by a third by 2020. There are two ways the "Intelligent Speed Adaptation" program could work: Cameras on cars could read speed-limit signs, or satellites could identify speeders. Devices might apply the brakes or simply warn drivers when they're speeding.

The plan, set for formal proposal this fall, has already met with resistance from Britain, where officials note that road fatalities are at their lowest since records began in 1926; some 1,754 people died on British roads last year, compared to some 3,657 in Germany. "This has Big Brother written all over it and is exactly the sort of thing that gets people’s backs up about Brussels," says a UK official. Britain's Automobile Association warns that the plan "could take away people's ability to get themselves out of trouble with a quick burst of speed," but it says it would approve of audible warnings to drivers, the Guardian notes. (More Britain stories.)

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