Tired drivers targeted
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• Crash investigators at a top insurance firm are to probe drivers' tacit° charts more closely for tell-tale signs of fatigue caused by breaking hours laws.
And if General Accident finds driver tiredness is to blame for an accident it will consider increasing a premium or even rejecting claims if the offence is ''blatant".
A Thames Valley police study showed that 18.5% of all road acccidents in its area in 1992 were the fault of driver fatiguea 7% increase on the year before.
GA also plans to examine other evidence pointing to a tired truck driver being responsible for a crash, says its commercial manager David Crichton.
"If a truck hit the back of a stationary vehicle and there are no skid ma rks, or if a truck just left the road for no apparent reason, then it's a fairly safe bet the driver was fatigued or asleep," says Crichton.
So far General Accident has not turned down a claim on the grounds of its tachograph findings. "We have been monitoring the position for the past two months and have come to no firm conclusions yet on how we will change our policy," adds Crichton.