Legs compulsory for semi-tankers?
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• The Standing Advisory Committee on Dangerous Substances is to consider if it should be compulsory for all tank units on articulated lorries carrying toxic or corrosive loads to be fitted with steel legs.
This task has been given to the committee by the Home Secretary, though when he gave the news in the Commons last week Mr David Lane, Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office, was not convinced about compulsion, Although steel legs might be an advantage in some circumstances, it was, he said, doubtful whether they were of such general benefit as to justify a statutory requirement for their use.
Mr Lane went on to give details of an accident where legs might well have helped. Mr Ernie Money (Tory, Ipswich) had first mentioned the accident which, he seid, involved the shedding of a tank containing 6000 gallons of petrol from an articulated lorry in Ipswich on July 16.
Mr Lane said that he understood that the motive power of the articulated vehicle separated from its tank trailer when drawing away from traffic lights. The trailer came to rest on two steel forelegs and none of the petroleum spirit was spilled.
The fitting of such legs was permitted under the Petroleum-Spirit (Conveyance by Road) Regulations 1957, noted Mr Lane, and might well have operated in this case to save the tank from rupture.