(Mon 31 Mar 08)

Volvo's City Safety brake system, which was recently praised by insurance organisation Thatcham (see separate story), has now won the American Traffic Safety Achievement Award at the World Traffic Safety Symposium in New York.

City Safety will reach production later this year when it is fitted to the new XC60. By applying the brakes automatically if it senses that a low-speed collision is imminent, it can, according to Volvo, entirely avoid contact with the car ahead at speeds below 9mph, and substantially minimise at speeds of up to 18mph.

"With City Safety, we hope to eliminate whiplash injuries, to both vehicles involved in typical city driving low speed accidents along with eliminating vehicle body damages," says Jonas Ekmark, Head of Preventive Safety at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre.

"Even with just reducing vehicle speed, this system will help to reduce the consequences of low speed impacts. The potential for reducing the risk of both personal injuries and car bodywork damage makes City Safety highly interesting from an insurance perspective.

"Volvo Cars is currently involved in negotiations with several insurance companies in Europe who are considering an insurance premium discount of up to 30% for cars equipped with City Safety."

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