BIRD'S EYE VIEW
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BY THE HAWK
• One Department of Transport civil servant is taking an especial interest in which party wins the general election. At the end of the month Martin Albu, head of the Freight and Road Haulage Policy Division, is crossing the Atlantic to speak at a conference on "Transport Deregulation and Safety". His topic, at the Northwest University of Illinois, is "surveillance" — or, in British terms, "enforcement".
If the Conservatives are returned he will be able to stick to his original script. This, I understand, paints a reassuring picture, on the lines of "Villains exist but most of them get caught and severely punished".
But a Labour Government, however, would require a change of emphasis. "Fresh Directions", the party's transport policy document published earlier in the year, complains about "inadequate enforcement of existing laws". I am told that Albu (whose
father Austen Albu was a Labour MP in the fifties) has an alternative script ready to submit to Bob Hughes if he appears in the Ministerial suite on the twelfth floor of No 2 Marsham Street next Monday.
• West Germany's lorry driver of the year has shoulder length hair, and attractive legs but never touches up her make-up as she waits at traffic lights.
Karin Boeker, a 38-year-old mother of three children, became the first woman to win the title for an act of bravery near Antwerp last year.
She used her 40 tonner to block a motorway layby and cut off the escape route for three bank robbers in a car.
Belgian police were able to nab the trio and Karin carried off the title plus a £12,000 Mercedes car.
Karin, married to a haulier, tired of her role as a housewife, became a driver two years ago. Now she covers 140,0001cm per year. • A Bristol coach company has been praised for its chivalry after one of its drivers came to the rescue of a school party whose coach had broken down on the M4.
Driver Colin Williams, 48, of Easton, Bristol, was returning from London when he came upon the stranded school party.
Police had pulled the broken down coach onto the hard shoulder near junction three of the motorway and Colin could see that some of the children were distressed including two who were having epileptic fits. He stopped to help with the agreement of the police and the other coach driver took the party of normal and special children back to their school in Buckinghamshire.
Now Wessex Coaches of Bristol has received letters of thanks from the school and the children.
Mrs Joan Haley, a teacher at the Lent Rise County Combined School, Burnham, Slough, wrote to the driver: "In an age when it is generally accepted that chivalry is dead and long-distance coach and lorry drivers come in for a lot of stick, it is comforting to know that there are still people like yourself who are willing to help others in an emergency.
"The children, their parents and my colleagues are all extremely thankful to you for your kindness."
One of the children, Emma Howlett, told Colin: "It was very kind of you to stop and give us a lift when you need not have bothered."
A modest Colin simply says "it was all in a day's work".
• The craze for flying light aircraft into and onto strange places (go to the Red Square in Moscow and you'll see what I mean) continues. The latest act of derring-do requires bravery, skill and a sense of the ridiculous.
Enter Brendan O'Brien, a 1950s design Piper Super Cub, an lveco Ford TurboStar and While O'Brien took off the twin-turbocharged TurboStar waited at the start of the runway for the aircraft's approach. A radio link between the plane and the truck enabled the pilot to instruct Maildem to start up and accelerate to 90kinhh. The pilot steadied the plane to fly above the truck and let it down to settle the Super Cub on the TIP trailer roof. A special landing platform enabled the wheels to be locked so that the truck could slow down and taxi back safely with the new load.
To do it once is madness. Despite this the team is planning to visit over 30 airshows in the UK and France this summer.