Fatal crash leads to belt campaign
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• The sister of a driver who wa, killed in a road accident while driving his truck two months ago plans to lobby the Dip and truck manufacturers to get them to introduce the fitting and compulsory wearing of seatbelts in trucks.
Katy Thomas, of Iken near Woodbridge, Suffolk, is cornpaigning because compulsory seatbelts "could save someone's life and then my brother would not have died in vain".
James Thomas, 23, worked for EA Pyman, a Stanbournebased haulier. He died when his Volvo FL10 inexplicably veered off the A604 near Cambridge. He was not wearing a seatbelt. The inquest will not be held for another two months.
"Drivers think they are professionals and beyond accidents where a seatbelt might save them," says Katy Thomas, whose father is also a driver.
Volvo has added its support to Thomas's campaign. Since October 1990 it has supplied all its new trucks with seat belts. In a letter to her the company says: "Even though the safety benefits are glaringly obvious, there appears to be the same reluctance among the trucking fraternity to the voluntary fitting and wearing of seat belts as there was when they were first introduced for cars." At present seat belts do not have to be fitted or worn in LGVs.