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Minister rejeds 50mph limit...
Page 22
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THANK YOU FOR your letter about the single carriageway speed limit for HGVs. In response to your recent campaign and statement that "it's about time our outdated speed limits were brought into the 21st Century" I would like to clarify the government's position.
Firstly.I agree with your point about the importance of the road transport industry to the UK economy. I also appreciate and support responsible operators who are interested in exploring ways in which they might reasonably improve efficiency and effectiveness.
However, I do not believe that increasing the HGV speed limit on single carriageway roads from 40mph to 50mph is the way forward.
All the evidence suggests that raising the speed limit would create unacceptable additional road safety risks. While I accept that modern trucks are indeed 'safer' in general terms, the fact remains that trucks take longer to stop from the same speed than a car. So, whereas an HGV travelling at 40mph could pull up in time to avoid hitting a car stopping in an emergency from 60mpti, an HGV driver would have no chance whatsoever of doing so if his vehicle were travelling any faster. It is also a fact that the consequences of accidents involving HGVs are always going to be far more serious than accidents involving smaller, lighter vehicles.
Your article suggests that some car drivers may become irritated when they are following a slow moving HGV and! have no reason to believe that this is not the case. But I am convinced that, human nature being what it is, even if the speed limit for HGVs were to be increased,the same small minority of car drivers might still want to overtake so the net result would be even more accidents, at even higher speeds. I am afraid it is a sad fact that a small minority of drivers simply appear to be unwilling to drive behind whatever type of vehicle is in front. But this is not a good argument for wanting to increase speed limits.
While I fully appreciate the need for government and industry to work in partnership to keep up to date with the challenges facing the industry,! do not agree with the suggestion from some quarters that the 40mph speed limit has somehow become out of date.
The primary safety reasons for leaving the limit as it is are as valid now as they ever were. David Jamieson
Transport Minster Department for Transport