80km/h limit for Euro trucks?
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• A Common Market plan to harmonise speed limits throughout the EEC by 1992 has been given a cautious reception by the industry's two trade associations.
The step-by-step plan is being studied in Brussels, where EEC officials are talking about maximum motorway speeds of 120krn/h (75mph) for cars, 100km/h (62mph) for coaches and 801(mili (50mph) for trucks.
EEC Transport Ministers have received a letter from EEC Transport Commissioner Stanley Clinton Davis stating that limits must be "realistic and enforceable".
In the letter he points out that motorway speed limits for light commercial vehicles and cars can vary between 100 and 140km/h (62 and 80mph), with no legal restrictions at all in West Germany, while HGVs are restricted to 56km/h (35mph) in Ireland — yet are permitted to travel at up to 100kmih (62mph) in Spain.
Clinton Davis says that the limits for buses and HGVs should be "significantly" lower than for cars.
The FM says that it has no objections to common HGV speed limits provided there are no reductions in the current limits which currently apply in Britain.
The RHA says there are often economic reasons for not going slower, as well as the aspect of safety.