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Ladyman pushes for handbrake alarms
Page 7
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TRANSPORT NUN ISTER Stephen Ladyman has promised to work with the European Commission to introduce type approval for the mandatory fitment of audible handbrake-off alarms on all new trucks.
This follows a motion put forward by Conservative MP Owen Paterson during the Road Safety Bill in Parliament last week. Paterson had proposed fitting audible warning systems to all LGVs by 2007; about seven people a year die in runaway vehicle incidents.
"We need to work with the [European] Commission and with European colleagues to make them realise the benefits of including the provision in future changes to regulations," says Ladyman. "I'm certainly prepared to raise it with them."
Paterson's motion was based on a paper written by Chris Kelly of Keltruck and Ashley Bassett of Stoke-on-Trent-based RU Bassett & Sons. Since a fatality at the company in 2001, Bassett has retrofitted handbrake alarms to all its tractor units.
Bassett says managers at other companies have told him about their own near misses: "Since we had our incident very many people have said 'that has happened to me and I was lucky'."
The death of a driver at RU Bassett & Sons prompted the Transport Association, of which Bassett is a member, to call on truck manufacturers to fit failsafe handbrake alarms to their vehicles in 2003. Since then a number of manufacturers have made initiatives on this front,includingDat MercedesBenz and Scania.
• Ladyman is considering handing out Flexiglass on mirrors' to all foreign trucks entering the country at Dover and to UK vehicles leaving Ike country.
This follows concerns about the inability of foreign vehicles to obtain a full view of other vehicles and road users in neighbouring lanes with their existing mirrors.
An EU directive will require all new LGVs to have wide-angled mirrors from 26 January 2007.The EC has launched a consultation on retrofitting these mirrors; comments are required by 19 May.