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Laying down the law

24th March 2005, Page 38
24th March 2005
Page 38
Page 39
Page 38, 24th March 2005 — Laying down the law
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

As CM celebrates its 100th anniversary, the legal section will include a series of features highlighting milestones in road transport

legislation. Patric Cunnane reports.

Commercial Motor first appeared in March 1905, at a time when UK road transport legislation was just beginning to bite. The 1903 Motor Car Act, which became law in January 1904, had introduced a speed limit of 20mph — a welcome increase from the somewhat stately 4mph which was no more than a brisk walking pace.

But even the 1903 act was not the first attempt to legislate the new-fangled practice of driving. The LocomotiveActof 1861 introduced legislation to ban the use of traction engines found to cause excessive wear and tear on the road while a revised act in 1865 introduced the 4mph limit and the requirement to have a man with a red flag walking ahead of the vehicle. These acts were replaced by the Motor Car Act of 1896.

Increasing concern at the danger of motor vehicles led to calls for stiffer penalties for dangerous driving. Consequently, the first clause of the 1903 act made it an offence to drive "recklessly or negligently" on the public highway.

According to Transport in Britain by Philip Bagwell and Peter Lyth. the 1903 act also required all motor vehicles to be registered with a county or county borough council and to display a number plate on the front and rear of the vehicle.

The registration requirement extended to private and commercial vehicle users.The driver was required to have an annually renewable driving licence for which the charge would be five shillings. The licence could be suspended by a court and the driver had a duty to stop and help the police in the event of an accident or incident. As Commercial Motor hit the streets for the first time a Royal Commission under Lord Selby was set up to investigate the working of the 1896 and 1903 acts.

It was charged with comparing the use of the motor ear in Britain with those of other European states and to investigate how the law might be toughened to alleviate the concerns of the industry's many critics.

At about the same time steam vehicles had become increasingly common on British roads and by 1903 about 1,000 were in use, built by Foden, Thornycroft, Leyland, and Aveling. They were noisy, smoky, somewhat alarming and less efficient than their petrol driven cousins.

As the century progressed both private motorists and commercial users would increasingly come to the attention of the lawmakers with a series of major acts of parliament and further regulations proceeding from those acts.

One of the most significant of those pieces of legislation, especially for the road transport sector,was the 1930 RoadTraffic Act; the brainchild of Herbert Morrison, Labour's Transport Minister following the 1929 election.

The act created 13 traffic areas including 11 in England and Wales and two in Scotland: each traffic area would be presided over by a Traffic Commissioner.

Triple licences

Bus operators were now required to hold three licences: one for the vehicle, subject to a check by an engineer; and one each for the driver and conductor.These were issued on condition that the operator paid adequate wages and limited working time (sound familiar?) to five and a half hours without a break and 11 in a day.

The act also abolished the speed limit of 20mph without replacing it with an alternative. However, the number of road deaths was shockingly high at this time. In 1934 no less than 7,343 people were killed on Britain's roads. Given that by 1938 there were still fewer than two million cars and 462,000 motorcycles in circulation this compares very unfavourably with the situation today.

The DVLA recorded 31 million licensed vehicles in 2003-4, of which 407,456 were HGVs.The Department forTransport recorded 3,508 fatal accidents in 2003. While there is still a long way to go on road safety these figures are indisputable evidence that legislation has contributed in no small part to dramatically reducing the casualty rate per vehicle miles travelled.

The appalling carnage of 1934 led to swift action by the government. Parliament passed the Road Traffic Act 1934 which introduced a 30mph limit in built-up areas. Compulsory driving tests were introduced and penalties toughened.

Then and now

their members from this flexible method of moving freight around the country.

Sir Arthur Salter, a former economic director of the League of Nations, chaired a conference of road and rail representatives to consider whether hauliers paid suffi cient taxes to compensate for the damage their vehicles did to the roads.

The conference advised limiting the drift of heavy goods traffic from the railways to the roads New law followed. The Road and Rail Traffic Act of 1933 introduced the A, B and C licences. Those who carried purely for hire or reward required an A licence; those who carried some of their own goods as well required a B licence and those who were purely own-account operators required a C licence.TheA.B and C licences had respective durations of two years, one year and three years. which meant that the Traffic Commissioner could limit the number of operators in business at one time.

OVER THE course of the year CM will go into more detail about the developments outlined above. We welcome any input from our readers with long memories on any of the subjects we intend to cover. The development of the Irish haulage industry, including the effects of deregulation will also be covered.

Look out for features on the 1905 Royal Commission, the Construction & Use regulations, nationalisation, drink-driving, the introduction of seat-belts. the history of the driving test, the war years, international law and Barbara Castle's big 1960s shake-up. Working time regulations might get a look in somewhere near the end — if you're lucky. •


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