ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATION
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The all-party Transport Select Committee is taking a close look at the enforcement of road haulage legislation; last week they took evidence from the truck safety campaign group Brake. Miles Brignol1 reports.
The enforcement of safety regulations in the haulage industry must be improved if we are to prevent another Sowerby Bridge disaster, said truck safety campaign group Brake when it appeared before the Transport Select Committee.
Brake director Mary Williams appeared with Lorraine Stott, whose husband Peter was killed at Sowerby Bridge; and Alistair Hill, of braking components manufacturer BBA Friction.
The proceedings opened with a powerful speech from Stott who said no one should have to go through what the relatives of the six people killed at Sowerby Bridge had experienced. She asked the Wil's to do anything they could to improve the safety of trucks on Britain's roads.
Williams told the committee she wanted unlicensed trucks impounded, more enforcement officers and better funding of the Vehicle Inspectorate. She spoke of "unacceptable" reductions in staff and police trained to give out PG9 prohibitions. Every operator who receives a prohibition should be prosecuted, she added, and the Crown Prosecution Service must pursue cases against owners of vehicles rather than taking the easier option of simply tackling drivers.
Quoting stories from Commercial Motor's legal pages, Williams said that Traffic Commissioners are often loath to revoke offending operators' licences because they would rather keep them within the system, where they can be watched. Consequently bad operators often appeared to get off lightly, she told the committee.
Williams called for action top improve truck safety, including the setting up of a VI database; changes to the driving test to force training schools to be licensed and to use full-size, loaded vehicles; and more roadside checks at night and during weekends. She acknowledged that drivers are often put under pressure by owners to break the law. This situation might be eased, said Williams, if it became harder to obtain a LGV licence because with fewer drivers desperate for jobs the remainder would be less willing to cut corners.
Hill showed the committee bogus braking components that had failed and said their production should be controlled, as it is in the car industry, to stop unsafe parts reaching the market.