'EDITOR'S COMMENT
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• The following is a digest of a letter sent by editor Brian Weatherley to the BBC following last week's Watchdog programme: When the media is coming under pressure to show balance in its reporting I was surprised by your programme's selective use of data to drive home a message that was one-sided and misleading. One of the first things I was taught as a journalist was that statistics, like quotes, should always be attributed in order to establish their credibility. Take your statement: "Lorries are involved in fatal accidents at twice the rate of cars". Who says so? Page 111 of the Department of Transport's Transport Statistics Great Britain 7979-7989 reveals that over the decade the number of road accidents resulting in death or serious injury involving HGVs fell 1.64% from 18,194 a year to 17,894. Meanwhile accidents involving cars rose 22.57% from 265,327 to 325,213.
More significantly, the involvement of HGVs in such accidents (measured as accidents per 100 million vehicle kilometres) fell by 26.82%, compared with 25% for cars. In 1979 HGVs were involved in 4.57% of all serious accidents; in 1989 the figure was 4.16%. Car involvement rose from 66.7% to 75.76%.
Watchdog also claimed: "Figures show that 1 in 8 (trucks) may be dangerous, illegal or both". What figures? If we are talking about the number of GV9 prohibitions the baseline is far from balanced.
Vehicle checks are not carried out on a random basis: The police, vehicle inspectors and traffic examiners have a clear idea which vehicles to stop and, quite rightly, target them. To pull in every HGV travelling along a stretch of the Al during a set period would be counter-productive, as it would involve stopping endless streams of safe, well-maintained vehicles.
The 1989 Vehicle Inspectorate report says: "The condition of the [UK] HGV fleet appears to have improved during the past year. The annual test failure rate for motor vehicles has decreased from 33% to 31.5% and there was also a marginal decrease in the failure rate for trailers from 26.8% to 26.5%. Contrast that with the VI's comments about cars: "Although the overall condition of cars and light goods vehicles has marginally improved, the annual test failure rate is still 41%."
You should also be aware of the decline in the rate of immediate prohibitions placed on HGVs (issued by the Vi to prevent an HGV travelling any farther until a serious mechanical defect is rectified). In 1984/85 the VI examined 45,020 HGVs in roadside spot checks, of which 12.7% attracted immediate prohibitions. During 1988/89 the VI spot-checked 78,110 HGVs with 8.5% attracting immediate prohibitions. Again, these figures are based on targeted vehicles.
Commercial Motor has no desire to see cowboy operators running on British roads. That a small minority continue to flout the low is inexcusable and the full force of the law should be brought against them.
But did it occur to Watchdog's researchers to ask exactly why the authorities have not been able to stamp them out? The programme's interview with the Metropolitan Licensing Authority clearly highlighted a problem that the LAs have in terms of resources.
I suppose that the road transport industry should be grateful for the programme's one crumb of positive praise referring to the operators of the half a million lorries on our roads: "Most of these are run by reputable companies which look after their vehicles." But will many viewers remember that lone sentence?
Is it too much to ask that the BBC devotes some time looking at the vast majority of professional hauliers who do operate within the law?