Equipping new cars with the latest digital safety devices couldprevent thousands of road deaths in the European Union and savebillions of euros by reducing traffic, a senior European Commissionofficial said Tuesday.

Under the "intelligent cars" initiative due to be unveiled Thursdayby IT commissioner Viviane Reding, the Commission wants toencourage car makers to install the latest safety devices in newvehicles. According to Commission figures, a range of digitaltechnologies could cut road deaths by around 10 percent and preventthousands of accidents. In addition, better electronic trafficmanagement systems could help reduce congestion, which costs theE.U.'s economy around €50 billion (US$60 billion) a year intransport delays.

The eCall system, in which vehicles automatically contact emergencyservices in the event of an accident, could cut fatalities by 5percent to 15 percent if all new cars had the technology by 2010,according to Rosalie Zobel, a director at the Commission'sinformation society directorate-general.

Devices such as adaptive cruise control, which help preventrear-end collisions by monitoring the position of vehicles in frontof car, could stop 4,000 accidents a year even if only 3 percent ofcars had the technology installed by 2010, the official explained.

Other devices that monitor a vehicle's lane position could prevent1,500 accidents a year if only 0.6 percent of vehicles had theproducts by 2010, the Commission said, while a technology thatmonitors drivers' eye movement and triggers alarms when they getsleepy could help stop 30 percent of all fatal motorway crashes and9 percent of all fatal accidents.

The E.U., the 25-member bloc, set a goal of halving the number ofroad deaths by 2010 but there are still over 1.4 million accidentsa year and 40,000 fatalities on E.U. roads. Human error is believedto be responsible for almost 93 percent of all accidents at a costof €200 billion or 2 percent of the E.U.'s total gross domesticproduct (GDP). Traffic congestion is estimated to affect 10 percentof the entire E.U. road network a year at a cost of €50 billion or0.5 percent of GDP.

The Commission wants to accelerate the adoption of thesetechnologies. Manufacturers have been slow to install existingtechnologies that increase road safety such as anti-lock brakingsystems and electronic stability programs, which improve drivercontrol in slippery conditions.

But Commission officials admitted that several obstacles impedefaster adoption of new devices, including:

-- legal barriers involving spectrum management;

-- the adoption of an E.U.-wide standard for adaptive cruisecontrol;

-- the high cost of devices due to relatively low level of consumerdemand;

-- and poor public awareness of the existence and effectiveness ofsafety-enhancing devices.

Concern over liability if a product failed -- the manufacturer orthe vehicle maker -- was also holding up adoption in some sectors,said Fabrizio Minarini, an official at the Commission informationsociety directorate-general.

The Commission is organizing a Feb. 23 demonstration in Brussels ofthe latest technologies.