Bar the Lunatic Fr Inge, says R.H.A.
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" DERHAPS the most urgent task is to
ensure that the tiny and highly dangerous lunatic fringe is barred from the roads by more and more severe penalties culminating in the revocation of licences. In other cases it is reasonable to hope that good counsel and better facilities wilt improve vehicle standards and reduce the number of defective vehicles to the minimum." These views are put forward in an eight-page memorandum which the Road Haulage Association has distributed widely to the Press following the intensified roadside
examinations of heavy goods vehicles.
The Association emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between the maniac fringe of operators who consistently overload vehicles and flout other regulations, and the occasional offender.
In its statement the R.H.A. also defends the safety record of the heavy goods vehicle, denying that "killer lorries" are responsible for the majority of road accidents and pointing out that in 1962 there were 2.8 personal injury accidents involving heavy commercial vehicles for every million miles covered, while for goods vehicles of under 30 cwt. unladen the figure was 4.5 and for cars and taxis it was 3.7. The Association states that in that year there were 426,000 personal injury accidents and only 17,000 of these, or about 1 in 25, involved goods vehicles over 3 tons.
Midland Traffic Survey : A two-year survey of every facet of transport in the Birming ham and Black Country areas, costing Lim., is to start this month with field studies which will cover 375 sq. miles and a population of 2fm. Interviewers will call on some 20,000 households, talk to bus and rail passengers and lorry drivers and set up dozens of roadside checkpoints to investigate flows.