Foggy thinking
Page 41
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• With regard to the recent accident on the M4, I was almost immediately confronted on television by one of our impressive MPs solving the problem at a stroke by installing fog warning lights on all the motorways.
I presume this would be not at his own expense, but at that of the tax payer, excise duty payer or poll tax payer. But what these lights would prove I fail to see. If these drivers can't see fog, or anything else for that matter, how the hell will lights make any difference?
From newspaper pictures I could see that a Scania artic on the hard shoulder had been pushed up the banking by another artic which in turn had been rammed by a van and a Land Rover and trailer.
I have heard that a tachograph chart can be read even after a fire. If so I wonder what the artic with the BRS trailer and the unidentifiable vehicle would reveal Most of the rubble on the roads from cars and vans can be put down to unprofessional drivers, but HGVs are a different category.
As tachograph charts are supposed to be checked by transport managers, some of the blame should be laid at their door. Speeding is a fault which should be obvious. The driver could then be warned, fined or sacked.
I know this will not apply to fog accidents, but many of those drivers may have been driving irresponsibly prior to these accidents. If they had been educated earlier much of this
carnage, the majority of which will be down to HGVs, might have been drastically reduced.
W Robinson Halifax West Yorkshire.