Where there's smoke there's..,
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I thought that report published last week by the British Safety Council was a bit of a cheek. If you haven't read it, don't be too disturbed: it doesn't merit any of your valuable time. It follows the usual pattern of someone who wants to get into the public eye by slamming lorries and coaches for black smoke emissions.
Just the kind of thing for the radio and TV boys to latch onto; they did and so BSC got a fair slice of publicity.
You may not have realised it when you looked at your repair bills, but operators are skimping on maintenance (according to BSC), the law is not being enforced and smokey diesels are a health hazard.
The impression given is that you operators are an irresponsible bunch, motivated only by profit, running under-serviced vehicles and choking the nation to death with cancerous, black, exhaust emissions.
The BSC check was carried out on a short stretch of the Great West Road in London. We are not told what scientific measures were used to lead to the conclusion that "the present levels of air pollution from lorries and coaches have reached disgraceful levels". (That's not even good English). Perhaps reporter Barry Walsh will tell me how he did the job.
If he does, I'll let you know.
Perhaps he might invite me to attend his next check; if he does, I'll accept. In the meantime, don't lose any sleep over his last effort.