Anti-jack-knife weaknesses
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• No anti-jack-knifing device has yet been found which will be reliable, safe and effective on all types of goods vehicles, Mr Eldon Griffiths, Under-Secretary, DoE, has told Mr David Mudd, Tory MP for Falmouth and Cambome.
Mr Mudd called for the compulsory fitting of anti-jack-knifing devices on all articulated vehicles following a recent accident near St Blazey, in which five people died.
In a letter to Mr Mudd, the Minister said his experts were seeking an urgent answer to this problem. Extensive research and trials on a number of devices had been carried out on a variety of vehicles under every-day conditions on the roads.
"The trials have already shown up weaknesses in the devices which have led to more trials with modified equipment," said Mr Griffiths.
Some of the side effects could cause more accidents than the devices prevented, the Minister added.
"Until we can be sure that devices are available which will be really reliable and safe in ordinary use there would be no sense in making the fitting of this sort of technically complicated and expensive equipment compulsory," he told Mr Mudd.