Crash spurs seat belt law
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• The Government wants to accelerate the fitting of speed limiters to all coaches and is looking at introducing seat belt legislation following the horrific coach crash near Paris in which 11 people died.
The Bus and Coach Council has recommended that seat belts are fitted to all coaches, and will be setting up a programme to advise operators on the problems of fitting belts to existing vehicles.
It says that the design of French motorways is not up to the standard of British ones, and claims that the lack of a hard shoulder and the presence of a ditch caused the vehicle to overturn in France.
The driver of the crashed coach has been freed on 25,000 bail after being charged with manslaughter by the French authorities.
Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson has stressed that the front tyre, which burst before the accident, was not a re-cut or re-tread.