Italian drivers 'too tired'
Page 12
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Lorry drivers working 24 hours at a stretch, non-stop journeys of more than 1,450km (900 miles) and secret payments to transport staff for illicit duties are some of the abuses disclosed in a report to the Italian legal authorities.
The Automobile Club of Italy (Ad), equivalent of Britain's AA, says that although commercial vehicle drivers form only 79i of road users, they committed almost half of Italy's 2.5 million traffic offences in 1985. More than 500,000 of these involved lorry drivers and 25,000 were serious enough to carry the risk of loss of driving licence.
The most common offences were speeding, dangerous overtaking, ignoring rights of way and careless use of headlights. Other major hazards presented by corn mercial vehicles were skidding, jack-knifing and trucks leaving the road, examples of which came to 1,400 during the year.
The ACI report was prepared for the 19th congress of Italy's judicial committees representing the country's various courts and presided over by the president of the Court of Appeal.
The report called for greater enforcement of EEC regulations concerning vehicular traffic and stiffer penalties.
It said that while most commercial vehicle drivers are law abiding the number of offenders was large enough to give cause for concern for public safety.
The report calls for the introduction of a points system so that persistent offenders could lose their licences. Referring to EEC regulations, it said urgent action was needed to enforce observation of the maximum permissible daily and weekly working periods, to ensure rest periods were taken after four-and-a-half-hour driving spells and to ban bonuses payable to drivers for distances covered or amount of goods carried.
It also urges a stiffening of penalties for disconnecting or tampering with tachographs.
The AC1 report says the most common causes of HGV accidents are excessive speed, overloading or bad load distribution, drunken driving, exhaustion caused by excessively long periods at the wheel and technical faults.
The report points out that one in every three lorries on Italy's roads is too old. Another area needing special ;attention, it adds, is hazardous loads and special convoys.