More Control Over Outsize Loads
Page 32
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
BY OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
1HE Ministry of Transport is considering introducing additional controls over abnormal indivisible loads, the number of which is increasing. The loads concerned are those more than 14-ft. wide or 40-ft. long. Regulations are being drafted which will require additional side lights visible to the side, front and rear of vehicles and trailers more than 40-ft. long.
Lord Chesham, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, who gave this news to the House of Lords, revealed also that spot checks on vehicles on the road were likely to begin at the end of the year. They are authorized under Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act, 1956, and cover brakes, silencers, steering gear, tyres, lighting equipment and reflectors. Lord Chesham said these checks would begin as soon as the vehicle testing scheme was under way in the autumn.
Other topics that have made Parliamentary news in the past few days are speed limits, roads, rural transport, safety and the Severn Bridge.
Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport,, is seeking Parliamentary approval for the general adoption of a 40 m.p.h. limit on suitable lengths of road all over the country.
Lord Chesham admits that there is a tremendous accumulation of road work to be done, but he thinks the priorities which have been adopted in assessing the importance of various schemes are correct. In deciding in what order road works should be undertaken, the Ministry consider the contribution that a road A30 makes to the national network which is being created, the industrial load it carries and its accident record.
The Jack Committee on rural transport are making extremely good progress, and still hope to present their report in the autumn.
Mr. R. Gresham Cooke (Cons., Twickenham) has discovered that in America and in Germany 20 per cent. of the drivers are responsible for 80 per
cent. of the accidents. He thinks those proportions may apply in Britain. If so, he believes that "corrective measures" should be taken against them. Mr. John Hay, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry, has asked the Road Research Laboratory to examine the possibility of further research.
An interim draft standard for safety harness is likely to be published by the British Standards Institution within the next two or three months.
Seven objections have been lodged against the draft Order for alterations to roads and footpaths on both sides of the Severn, hut they are not likely to affect the start of work on the Severn Bridge. Mr. Hay hopes that the objections will be dealt with quickly.