armed guards em and forME
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;ONVOYS with armed guards should be organised to protect rivers on the Middle East routes while a complete investigation rite haulage is carried out. The call, came from Transport and ;eneral Workers' Union national organiser Jack Ashwell this veek.
The call follows the death of river Mr Glyndwr Francis .rho was murdered by bandits Turkey three weeks ago and call by a Labour MP for an xtra insurance bond to be odged by the haulier to cover nsurance in case of fatality.
Mr Ashwell told CM: "The vhole question of these runs nust be investigated with the Aim of making sure that the iriver is looked after. The modern truck is all glass, there's no protection for the driver if he is attacked," said Mr Ashwell.
"What we need is a convoy system with armed guards to protect them. The driver has got enough to do handling his vehicle without anything else."
Commenting on another report that the union was calling for drivers themselves to be given guns he said: "I don't know where that came from but it is not going to help the situation at all.
"If the robbers know that the driver is armed then they will shoot first and kill the driver — after all it's the cargo they want."
The call for extra insurance bonds to be lodged came from Mr Francis' own MP, Mr Donald Coleman, who has written to Employment Secretary Mr Albert Booth suggesting that the extra insurance bonds become part of new legislation.
Mr Coleman says in his letter that money collected in Neath for the dead man's family is having to be used to finance the transport of his body home. He also says that insurance policies on Mr Francis' life are not being paid in full because of the way he died.
"It seems to me to be only reasonable that employers who are engaged in this very lucrative business should be compelled to provide the necessary financing of a scheme which would enable the costs of transportation of bodies of personnel killed to be met," he says.
"Clearly from this experience no such arrangements have been entered into voluntarily by employers. It is likely that there will be an increased volume of this traffic, I believe the Government should introduce legislation which would require hauliers to lay down an adequate bond," said Mr Coleman.