Adam Purshall Head of engineering and compliance
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I. TM Logistics ' Martley,Worcs
Purshall believes that the official statistics that emonstrate Britain is leading the way in ad safety come as no surprise.
There has been a huge Improvement in oad safety, particularly in the HGV sector," he states. The UK haulage industry spends a great deal of time and effort being as professional as it can be.
'We spend increasing amounts of money on driver training, and have seen year-onyear increases in our training budgets.
"It's an investment not just in people, but in financial benefits, too. For example, our insurance premiums have been reduced." I However, Purshall feels the record is eing blighted by higher accIdent rates
Involving foreign trucks. According to estimates from the Department for Transport, left-hand-drive trucks from abroad are up to eight times more likely to be involved in a serious crash on UK roads.
Purshall says: "This is still an area that needs to be looked at. More research is needed to establish what types of accidents they are getting involved in. My guess is that the accidents are due to a combination of [the trucks being] left-hand drive and drivers not being as well trained as they are here.'
However, foreign drivers are not the only group of road users to cause problems. Collisions between cyclists and trucks are frequently in the news, and the lorry driver rarely gets a good press.
"Cyclists need to be more aware of the limitations of driving an HGV," believes Purshall. "It's too easy to blame the 'big, bad lorry', even when the driver is not at fault."