BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 48
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BY THE HAWK
• A British road safety handbook which saves lives by helping local authorites eliminate accident blackspots has won its authors a half share in the prestigious £45,000 Volvo International Traffic Safety Award.
Joint winners with a Norwegian group — out of a field of more than 70 entries from countries as far apart as Australia, the US, Poland, Cuba, Greece and Sri Lanka — were a team of experts from the British-based Institution of Highways and Transportation.
The two teams received their awards from Roger Holtback, president of the Volvo Car Corporation, in Gothenburg last week at the Volvosponsored International Conference on Road and Traffic Safety on Two Continents.
Now in its second edition, the influential Guidelines for Accident Reduction and Prevention has already contributed to a 23% cut in road deaths in Britain during the past six years, by promoting low-cost engineering schemes which pay for themselves.
The institution's researchers believe progress is much too slow and that schemes costing up to £100,000 can also give a worthwhile return on the investment.
"Whether the aim is to prevent or reduce accidents," says Mr VS Payne, president of the B1HT, "a relatively small outlay on road safety engineering can bring huge rewards in both financial and human terms.
Guidelines is obtainable from the Institute of Highways and Transportation, 3 Lygon Place, Ebury Street, London SW1W 0J5. • Shame on the city of Edinburgh. After surviving five months in London (and some very dodgy areas at that) without so much as a bird dropping, our long-term test Volkswagen Transporter was taken on a brief trip to the Scottish capital where it suffered the indignity of having its badge removed by Beastie Boys fans (one assumes). Don't they know up there, that this is no longer fashionable? • Greta Shepherd has all the luck. While entrants in the Ryder Truck Rental sponsored Lorry Driver of the Year competition come back year after year to attempt a crack at the awards, Shepherd wins her LDoY class the first time she enters. Her father who runs Shepherd Transport in Forest Hill, Oxford, also entered but didn't do so well — he came ninth in his class.
The Hawk wants to know why the winner of the Ladies class was not treated in the same manner as the winners of the other classes. Greta Shepherd wasn't allowed to have a go at the main title. Nor was the winner of the under-25 class, Ray Hill.
• If you came into £150,000, what would you do with it? The Hawk has passed a pleasant few moments contemplating this savoury thought as I'm sure you will. It came happily true for one organisation.
Last week, a cheque for £151,518.04 was presented by Sealink to the RNLI at St Katherine's Dock in London and there was no hesitation about how it would be spent. The money will be used to fund half the cost of building and equipping a new fast carriage lifeboat (operating from places which has no constant harbour).
Sealink British Ferries' Mike Aiken handed over the cheque to a delighted Vice Admiral Sir Peter Compston, a member of the RNLI's Committee of Management.
Sealink set itself the target of raising £150,000 after donating £20,000 itself. Collections were held on board Sealink's fleet and the response from passengers — holidaymakers, business people and lorry drivers alike — was enough to complete the figure.
The presentation was made all the more interesting by the appearance of Tyne Class `RNLB Babs and Agnes Robertson' representing the new generation of lifeboat. Twice as fast as the old Solent class, this is powered by two Detroit Diesels (420hp each, 330kW) with ZF gearboxes.
Weighing in at 24 tonnes, fuel consumption figures would make any operator wince — 176 litres per hour. Hammer down the motorway at the speed limit for an hour in an average 38 tonner and you can expect to use 41 litres. Bostrom Viking seats provide further evidence of the similarity between lifeboat and truck.