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Drivers told to rest eveni two hours'
Page 10
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• by Ouy Sheppard Union leaders say they have been inundated with calls from truck drivers questioning why their rest periods do not match those recommended by the government in a new road safety campaign.
The campaign, which highlights the dangers of nodding off at the wheel, suggests stopping for a 15-minute break every two hours to reduce the dangerous effects of tiredness.
Jimmy Hill, national chairman of the Transport & General Workers Union's road transport commercial group, says: "If car drivers have to rest every two hours the law should be changed so that lorry drivers should have a rest after two hours, 'We maintain it is far too long to go four-and-a-half hours without a break. Lorry drivers are under more stress than car drivers because they have to deal with employers on the phone telling them they're late and must get this and that done."
Hill says he received at least 30 calls from drivers about this issue in the first week of the campaign, which involves dis
playing the message Think— Don't Drive Tired from motor. way gantry signs. Other T&G officials have been bombarded with similar calls, he adds.
But Geoff Dunning, northern regional director of the Road Haulage Association, says the safety campaign recommendation about rest periods is targeted at car drivers who use motorways infrequently: not at lorry drivers. "If someone really feels they have a problem then they should have a rest and I don't think any employer would criticise a driver who genuinely felt he was a risk to road safety and had to have a break because of that," he adds.
Last week a 44-tonne truck crashed through the central barrier of the M5 in Gloucestershire and careered the wrong way up the southbound carriageway before coming to a halt on the central refuge.
Police believe that tiredness was a major factor behind that incident—and driver fatigue is also being linked to a lorry crashing into the central barrier near Junction 9 of the M5 less than 36 hours earlier.