'Increase police power'
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• New police powers are being sought to prosecute hauliers over drivers' hours offences. This is part of a motorway safety plan that won the backing of 170 delegates at a motorway safety seminar in Preston at the weekend.
They also called for better matrix warning signs and a greater use of technology, including hidden cameras to trap speeding drivers. Now the plan will be sent to Junior Transport Minister Peter Bottomley.
Traffic investigator Constable Bob Adamson told delegates that the drivers' hours law should be simplified, making operators directly responsible for all tachograph offences committed by their employees. It was too easy for unscrupulous hauliers to hide behind carelessness, he said, warning that if this was not countered it would lead to an increase in HGV accidents.
Adarnson's controversial speech was countered by Bob Cross of the Freight Transport Association. There were cowboy operators, he admitted, but most hauliers were concerned about motorway safety and complied with the tachograph laws.
He also stressed that trucks already had a lower accident rate than have other vehicles, The seminar was organised by Lancashire Chief Constable Brian Johnson, following three motorway accidents in 1986 and 1987 which killed 34 people in the county. They happened on the M6 and M61 which should have been the safest motorways in the UK, according to one expert.
Delegates saw the workings of a German camera speed trap which uses three light beams to photograph a fast-moving vehicle. A computer than calculates the vehicle's speed, records its licence number and a summons is posted automatically if it was breaking the speed limit.
John Over, Chief Constable of Gwent and chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers' traffic committee, said such evidence would not be acceptable in British courts — but predicted that it would become so.
The seminar also accepted that current matrix signalling devices are too slow to warn drivers of hazards effectively and should be replaced by gantry signals, as are now in use on the MI.
Lorry and coach drivers are more prone to motorway fatigue than other motorists because they work irregular hours arid become conditioned to the monotony of motorway driving, a medical expert claimed.
The delegates also called for anti-lock brakes and better tyre tread on HGVs.