MAJOR ATTACK ON BAD MAINTENANCE
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AMAJOR attack on the "lunatic fringe" who fail to maintain vehicles properly was announced on Monday by Mr. Ernest Marples, the Minister of Transport. Spot checks are to be substantially increased, he said, during the summer.
In addition, at least once in each traffic area, there will be a two-day " blitz" on a large town or commercial centre. The first " blitz " will strike Leeds, in the next two or three weeks.
The Minister said: "Although it is true that, as a class, heavy goods vehicles are better maintained and have a better accident record than most others, there is evidence that a lunatic fringe of operators fail to maintain their vehicles properly and use them in a cond:tion which makes them a threat to the safety of other road users. We have got to do something to stop this.
"This new campaign is not intended as an attack on the road haulage industry. Its purpose is to impress, forcibly, on operators the need to ensure that all their vehicles are adequately maintained and properly used. For this reason notice of these intensive inspections are being given sufficiently far in advance to enable operators in the area to put their vehicles in order. If they fail to do so . . . they will only have themselves to blame."
Asked in the Commons on Monday about research into limiting vehicle fumes, Mr. Marpies said that no official research was being undertaken into means of reducing fumes from dieseland petrol-engined vehicles; this could best be done, he said, by the engine manufacturers, who fully appreciated the need for it.
The Minister added that the measurement of smoke from diesel exhausts had been under investigation by D.S.I.R.