...as safety campaigners call for enforcement blitz
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by Karen Miles
• Brake, a truck safety campaign called launched today (2 February), has won the backing of the Labour Party, senior Licensing Authority Ronald Ashford, unions and truck accident victims.
The campaign is designed to highlight the 700 deaths a year in accidents involving trucks. It will press for tighter enforcement with tougher penalties for errant operators.
Brake has condemned the 20% efficiency gains demanded from the Vehicle Inspectorate and the Traffic Area Offices by the Department of Transport. It is calling for:
• Six-monthly checks for all trucks; • Tougher penalties meted our, by specially trained magistrates.
The campaign is headed by journalist Mary Williams whose mother Susan was killed by a tanker in May 1992.
Transport Secretary Steven Norris has told Labour frontbench spokeswoman Joan Walley that the VI lost nearly 2,000 hours of roadside checks between 1 April and the 30 September 1994 because of the "withdrawal of police support from organised checks in progress".
Labour plans to ask for VI figures on the numbers of vehicles weighed, region by region and month by month, for the year until the end of March 1995.
The Parliamentary Transport Select Committee is expected to take a close look at Commercial Vehicle enforcement between now and Easter.