CAMPAIGN TO TIGHTEN UP ON DANGEROUS LOADS
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
PARLIAMENT is reawakening to the fact that the carriage of dangerous substances by road is still governed by inadequate legislation. A new campaign, which opened last week, has led the Home Office to admit that there has been virtually no activity on this front since 1959. MPs can now be expected to press for action, and one of them, former Fire Service union chief Mr. John Homer, put questions down to the Home Secretary on Tuesday.
A new Home Office standing advisory committee was announced to .look into the subject last May. It held its first meeting in September and decided to form four technical sub-committees to look into the specific aspects of storage, -transportation, the manufacture of vehicles and the marking of road tankers.
At the moment the Ministry is waiting for ihe names of representatives to come in from industry, local authorities, and so on. It is hoped they will be able to meet "very soon ".
Meanwhile, concern is growing at the fact that too many of the big road tankers do not indicate what they are carrying, do not carry instructions for counteracting a crash or fire, and have drivers who do not know enough about the safety hazards involved.
Britain is still not keen to ratify the European convention on this subject: taking the view that the need is not so great here as in land-locked countries. It is even doubtful whether we would comply fully if the necessary number of countries ratified it, although the increasing amount of cross-Channel traffic would make some observance imperative.
However, the need for legislation is accepted, and Whitehall has agreed it
is " concerned about the delay. It is pointed out that the European agreement runs to 500 pages, and that to get discussions going at home between the varied interests on such a complex subject is taking a lot of time.
It is also being emphasized that serious accidents to road tankers carrying dangerous chemicals are rare. When they do occur, however, they have the horrific impact of an air crash, like the lorry explosion in West Bromwich in 1962.
Chief fire officers are leading the campaign to get new regulations. They want their firemen to know what they face in an accident—and they want lorry drivers to know all about the loads they carry so. that they do not leave them parked in side streets, a prey to thieves, vandals and innumerable kinds of accident.