1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136 
FTA fears 6 backlash
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Cheshire police suspect that last week's 40-vehicle M6 pile-up might have been caused by a fragment of a truck's leaf spring.
The theory is that a 300mm section of the steel spring broke away, bounced off the road and pierced the truck's fuel tank, dumping diesel on to the road surface.
Police have interviewed the driver and are awaiting the results of forensic tests before deciding whether to press charges. In the wake of the crash, which claimed four lives, pressure is mounting on the Government to transfer freight from road to rail.
Former Labour Transport spokeswoman Gwyneth Dunwoody has demanded an urgent inquiry "into the use of motorways by heavy goods vehicles to carry dangerous substances, which is an increasing problem and danger to every driver".
Labour MP for Stoke-onTrent central, Mark Fisher, said in the Commons that the recent accidents are only the latest of seven crashes in the past five years on that section of the M6 in which 58 people have died. All the crashes involved HGVs.
Demanding a debate with Transport Secretary Paul Channon, Fisher said: "The danger of the weight of traffic on our roads is now becoming acute. More accidents such as these will happen unless the Government offers positive incentives by subsidising freight on the railways to take it off the roads — as all other European countries do." Freight Transport Associa
tion director general Gary Turvey warns operators to brace themselves for a renewed spate of anti-lorry campaigning: "Accidents involving commercial vehicles; the selfishness of impatient and inconsiderate motorists; blinkered MPs; bully boy tactics on the part of a minority of lorry drivers and a growing and understandable awareness of the importance of environmental protection, are all combining to renew the pressures on the road transport industry," he says.
Turvey rejects any idea of subsidising rail freight. The FTA, he says, has always supported the Channel Tunnel as an additional freight facility, but on the strict understanding that it competes on equal terms with all other services.