Road safety: preventing and acting to reduce impacts
Published on
Down with road accidents! At Renault Group, road safety is a long-standing commitment. It is today reflected in ever-increasing technological improvements in driving assistance (ADAS), a unique collaboration with firefighters and the opening of patents such as the “Fireman access” to facilitate road rescue by firefighters. This increases active and passive safety. Let’s find out more.
Road accidents: statistics for action
Road safety is a major public health issue, and an absolute priority for us. More than 50 years ago, in 1969, the Group and PSA created the LAB for “Laboratoire d’accidentologie et de biomécanique”, at a time when road death numbers were reaching record levels. That same year saw more than 14,500 road deaths in France. By 2024, that number had dropped to 3,190* (ONISR source) (despite an increase in the number of cars on the road during the same period). “Accidents are now less frequent, but they are still too many,” comments Stéphane Buffat, director of the LAB and road safety expert leader at Renault Group. His mission is to “reduce the number of injuries and deaths to zero.”
Anticipating to better protect: innovation at the heart of passive security
Over the past few decades, the Group has rolled out a range of ways to enhance driver and passenger safety on the road and prevent injuries. Stéphane Buffat explains that “the Group promoted a belt wide enough to protect the chest” and ensures, for example, that “pedals are pulled out in the event of a road accident to reduce chances of leg fractures”.
But more can be done in passive safety. In addition to on-board systems such as emergency braking and protection such as air bags, the Group now strives to plan ahead for safety issues “right from the beginning of vehicle design,” says Claire Petit-Boulanger, Renault Group’s Tertiary Safety expert.
“About ten years ago,” she says, “we approached the fire services and realized that we could still make a huge contribution to saving lives, as a car manufacturer. Even after people had been caught in an accident, by helping emergency services act faster and more efficiently.” In particular, rescue services can access the ‘rescue sheets’ that provide essential emergency information to intervene more efficiently and are readily accessible during interventions thanks to QR codes located on vehicles, called “QRescue”.
Road accident relief and ’Golden Hour’
Since 2017, Christophe Lenglos, Lieutenant-colonel of the Yvelines fire brigade (SDIS 78 France) has been seconded to Renault Group. His successor, Commandant Nicolas Granier has recently joined our expert team Road Safety. This synergy of expertise allows us to consolidate our commitment in the field and refine our solutions for ever more effective safety. Because it is important to know that statistically, deaths caused by very violent accidents occur within the first hour after the accident (a crucial timeframe known as the ‘golden hour’), hence the importance of intervening as fast as possible.
As the vehicle structure is strengthened to protect occupants, the techniques used by fire fighters are evolving: on new generation vehicles, rather than trying to cut the vehicle, the idea is to create an extraction tunnel in order to drag the victim out... Operations further facilitated by Renault Group’s additional yearly donation of 500 new-generation decommissioned vehicles to firefighters so they can train extrication techniques on recent models. To note: more than 5,000 firefighters worldwide have benefited from the training organized by Renault, most recently in Paraguay and Colombia, thanks to our partnerships with the World Rescue Organization (WRO) and Pompiers de l'Urgence Internationale (PUI) associations.
Another road safety issue that is becoming even more important today: electric vehicle batteries. For the Group vehicles, in case of fire or malicious act, the battery will remain safe for half an hour. If the battery catches fire, firefighters can “extinguish it in a few minutes by spraying water into the batter through a hatch in the vehicle’s chassis that easily melts away,” says Claire Petit-Boulanger. Called ‘fireman access’, the innovative system is unique to Renault Group. It takes just 10 minutes to completely put out the battery fire, compared to 1 to 3 hours on electric vehicles that don’t feature the hatch. The rapid response time also translates into considerable water savings, with only 1,300 L instead of 11,000 L for a single intervention.
In order to accelerate the integration of this innovation by the largest number and to reduce the number of deaths on the roads, the Group has opened access rights to this patent as Open Source since 18 February 2025.
A personal trainer on the road
In addition to the technical improvements, another way to improve safety currently being explored by the group is driver behaviour. Speeding, drinking, using a smartphone while driving (which increases the risk of an accident fourfold according to the World Health Organization) … there are countless factors that can cause an accident. “While we have developed many driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as emergency braking and lane keeping, it’s still not enough! Accidents are most often linked to a human cause: 93% of the time,” says Christian Taffin, expert in driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles at Renault Group.
Since 2024, a new system has been available in certain Group vehicles: the Safety Coach. Its purpose is “to influence a driver’s behaviour by analysing how they drive in terms of safety, road-rule compliance… to then make them aware of risks they take when driving’, he explains.
The system will then give tailored advice to the person driving and may, for example, recommend activating certain ADAS depending on their specific needs, such as the speed limiter for those who tend to have a heavy foot. The arrival of the software-defined vehicle (vehicle design based on centralised software applications) as from 2026 within the group will bolster the system, allowing users to download the latest safety features to their car.
To further encourage drivers to adopt exemplary driving practices, drivers can also be awarded Safety Rewards in the form of trophies and even discounts for the safest drivers. In the future, this type of ADAS will warn drivers “presenting signs of inattention or drowsiness, or remind them to check their bearings before overtaking, for example,” says Christian Taffin. Enough, hopefully, to make driving a real walk in the park.
Partnership with firefighters since 2010
DFor 15 years, Renault Group and the rescue services have been joining forces to save lives. The only manufacturer in the world to have integrated a full-time Lieutenant-Colonel of fire brigades, Renault Group has been training emergency responders regularly for several years in several countries to intervene on all new generation vehicles in the range, mainly in the various cases of road accidents.
- more than 5,000 trained firefighters
- 19 partner countries
- 4000 vehicle donations
«TimeFighters: every minute counts» - A documentary by the Naudet brothers
To shed light on their precious work, Renault has called on the keen eyes of brothers Jules and Gédéon Naudet (directors of the award-winning documentaries on the September 11 attacks in New York, the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, and the fire of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris), to make the film ‘TimeFighters: every minute counts’. For a number of days, they followed the lives of firefighters from the Montigny-le-Bretonneux barracks (Yvelines, France), showcasing the extensive collaboration between Renault group and roadside first responders.
Human First Program : Renault’s vision of safety
Renault has been optimising existing safety systems and developing new ones for more than 50 years. The Human First program demonstrates Renault’s commitment to improving safety for drivers, passengers and other road users all around the world.
Renault has launched the Human First program in 2023 to present all its safety initiatives to the general public and position itself as a people-centric tech brand.
The Human First program focuses on three key safety-related priorities:
- Preventing accidents by developing advanced driver-assistance systems (ADASs) and safety equipment: More than 36 ADASs and 60 pieces of safety equipment are used across the Renault range, helping prevent and reduce the severity of collisions and injuries.
- Managing road accidents more effectively by establishing a unique partnership with firefighters across Europe: Over 5,000 firefighters have received training, and major post-crash management innovations (such as Fireman Access and QRescue Renault).
- Reducing the number of accidents by making substantial investments in R&D and developing on-board technologies, such as Safety Score and Safety Coach, and connected services.