Tens of thousands of people will be killed - and hundreds of thousands injured - unnecessarily, if motor manufacturers fail to introduce long awaited design improvements immediately.
In a report (by TRL - The Transport Research Laboratory) published late last year it was revealed that previous European statistics relating to the death and injury of vulnerable road users (VRUs) were seriously underestimated due to underreporting (previous estimates 12,021 fatalities, 123,574 serious injuries).
The statistics quoted in the reports show more than 12,400 cyclists and pedestrians killed and 296,000 seriously injured each year within the European Union - with a number of new member states yet to be incorporated within the figures (Greece, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
But the European Commission has been told that 1,700 fatalities and 42,000 serious injuries to VRUs (pedestrians and cyclists) could be prevented each year if manufacturers produced cars that were compliant with the latest requirements.
Legislation, forcing the changes to be made, is being phased in - and will not be fully in force until 2010 or beyond. And discussions are taking place to make the new laws less onerous on carmakers.
The report states that previous European statistics relating to the death and injury of VRUs have seriously underestimated the situation due to underreporting.
The chairman of EuroNCAP - the European New Car Assessment Programme charged with enhancing car safety - called on the CEOs of major manufacturers to drive through the changes now.
Speaking via video link to a major media conference at the Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid, Professor Claes Tingvall said: "The killing has got to stop, not tomorrow, not in 2010, but now.
"For every day that we lose, five people will die and 115 will be seriously injured. Car manufacturers have had the ability to save this pain and suffering for years - but have chosen not to do so.
"The World Health Organisation has called the situation a global catastrophe - and it is. Manufacturers make the mistake of thinking that people wouldn't be interested in saving lives if they had to pay a few euros more. I can give them an absolute guarantee that they are wrong."
The changes called for include the repositioning and restructuring of the front bumper to absorb energy and reduce the chances of leg breakage, the 'softening' of the leading edge of the bonnet and less rigid reinforcement under the bonnet.
Leading researcher Graham Lawrence, of The Transport Research Laboratory in the UK, who co-authored the report for the European Commission, estimates that the average cost per vehicle of such modifications will be around €100.
Since its inception in 1997 EuroNCAP has been hugely successful in driving through safety improvements for adult occupants and children. Now it is redoubling its efforts to help VRUs.
The EuroNCAP Phase 15 ratings, which incorporate 13 new models and one previously tested, reveal the extent of the problem:
¤ seven received the maximum five-star rating for occupant safety;
¤ nine received the maximum four-star rating for child protection;
¤ no cars received the maximum four-star rating for pedestrian protection; and
¤ nine cars received merely a one-star rating for pedestrian protection.
The dichotomy between occupant protection and pedestrian protection ratings particularly stark with the Audi A6, Renault Modus, VW Touareg, and the Citroën C5.
These models all achieved maximum five-star ratings for occupant protection and just a one-star rating for pedestrian protection.
Two vehicles - the Seat Altea and Citroën C4 - are leading the pack with a creditable three-star rating for pedestrian protection.
Professor Tingvall said: "We have made safety a market factor in the consumer decision-making process - the manufacturers wrongly believe that car buyers only care about their own - and their passengers safety.
"Fleet buyers have a major role to play. They buy around half the new cars purchased in Europe - and they have a responsibility for all road users - including Vulnerable Road Users."
The conference also featured the story of Francis Herbert, a lawyer from Brussels whose nine-year-old daughter Marie died after being hit by a car.
"If manufacturers can change the front end of a car for cosmetic or aerodynamic purposes - surely they should do the same to save so many lives," Mr Herbert said. "There is no decision to be made."
Consultant Neurosurgeon Colin Shieff, from the Royal Free Hospital, London, is on the front line in the fight to save life and limb. The campaigner for head injury pressure group Headway backed EuroNCAP's call.
"The brain is a very delicate organ," he said. "You can't just mend it like a broken bone. Head injury is all too common a result of a pedestrian or cyclist being hit by a car.
"It often proves fatal - and those that survive often suffer serious consequences - such as memory loss, dramatic personality changes - and in the worst cases, loss of speech and mobility.
"In my opinion - anything that can be done should be done - and it should be done now".
The launch, held in conjunction with super soccer club Real Madrid, featured the shocking story of a driver that killed a child on her way to school. The woman of 50, a teacher from Belgium, was not drunk, she was not speeding - but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a young child ran out into the road.
"I didn't realise that anything was wrong - until I saw flesh on the windscreen," she said. "I went to the child - and held her head - she was beautiful. A few minutes later I heard a woman screaming in the distance - instinctively I knew it was the mother arriving on the scene.
"For those awful moments she wasn't just her child - she was our child."
Her story epitomises just how catastrophic being the driver of a car that kills will almost certainly be. She suffered a nervous breakdown, had to leave her job and cannot bring herself to be in the company of young children.
"I felt totally responsible," she said. "I was an adult - she was a child."
EuroNCAP personnel will be making representations to vehicle manufacturers to emphasise their concern.